2009-01-28 20:41:43 - The so-called stimulus bills to be considered by the House and Senate - which many are claiming are loaded with pet projects having little to do with stimulating the economy - are completely wacky and backwards when it comes to public health, at least according to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

The House version of the bill would allocate $355 million for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention, but no corresponding designated amount at all for smoking education and control. SEE PAGE 147 AT www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/111_hr1_text.pdf

This is bizarre, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), since, as the Senate Committee report on its stimulus package clearly states, cigarette smoking costs $106 BILLION a year in direct medical costs, and causes 1 in 5 deaths annually in the U.S.

In comparison, the same report says the STD epidemic is estimated to cost the U.S. health care system only $15,000,000,000 annually - less than 15% of the cost of smoking, and does not even provide a

comparable figure for deaths.
SEE PAGES 60 and 61 AT: senateconservatives.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/stimulusreportse ..

Yet, strangely, after reciting these grim statistics, the Senate is proposing to allocate $400 million to fight STDs, with only $75 million aimed at the much more deadly and expensive problem of smoking.

"Although sexually transmitted diseases are an important health problem, they do not kill more than 400,000 Americans each year or cost the health care system anything like the $106 BILLION caused by cigarette smoking. "

"Moreover, since both can be virtually eliminated by more effective educational programs, it makes no sense to single out one for a large designated funding boost, and to virtually ignore the one which is far more deadly and much more expensive," says ASH.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // ash.org