March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Speaker says smoking kills more than all wars

AUGUSTA — Treating lung disease requires a multifaceted approach, but many cases could be prevented by a singular act: quitting smoking.

“There is a tremendous problem in terms of smoking-related death” from diseases such as cancer, heart disease and emphysema, Dr. William Bailey said Wednesday. In the United States, “450,000 deaths are expected this year — more than all the wars put together.”

Bailey, who is professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and asthma chairman for the National Institutes of Health, was in Augusta Wednesday for a two-day Maine Respiratory Health Summit. Funded by a bequest from the late Kathryn Slipp of Camden, the summit brought together board members and staff from the American Lung Association of Maine, health-care providers and other citizens concerned about improving respiratory health in Maine.

More people are quitting smoking, Bailey acknowledged, but many are also starting.

“The tobacco companies are aggressively trying to market to youth and young people,” Bailey said. He cited a drop in prices by some cigarette companies as one effort in that direction.

Board member Dale Morrell said 95 percent of smokers start before age 18, even though it is illegal to sell cigarettes to minors.

The state of Maine believes it is making money on cigarette sales through excise taxes, said Morrell. “But tobacco-related illnesses cost $88 million a year, and revenue from excise taxes is only $52 million a year.”

“The most important thing we could do for people is to get them to stop smoking,” Bailey said. But the tobacco companies are “a very well-funded adversary,” he said.

Smokers are able to quit “if they are properly motivated and given proper assistance,” Bailey said. Nicotine gum and patches can be part of that assistance, as can behavior-modification techniques.

Clean-air bills can help the effort to curb smoking, Bailey said, but they can be difficult to get through legislatures. “Some people are so beholding to the tobacco lobby that you really can’t get things through.”

Prevention of cancer, emphysema and other lung diseases is much more effective than some of the more dramatic medical advances such as ventilator support and lung transplants, he said.


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