NORWICH – Tobacco-free advocates are encouraging Chenango County to play a larger role in curbing what the state health department says is a high rate of smoking here.
Banning tobacco advertising displays in local retail stores, requiring that products be covered or below the counter and prohibiting retailers from selling them within 1,000 feet of schools are just some of the options counties and even municipalities can take.
Lengthy discussions at meetings of the Buildings and Grounds Committee this past May led to a narrowly-adopted ban on lighting up during large events in the City of Norwich’s East and West Parks. But the action taken wasn’t far enough, and even “redundant,” Tobacco Free Chenango Coordinator James Mutabiilwa told members of the Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday.
“Festivals such as Colorscape and Pumpkin Fest are already designated tobacco-free,” he said.
Posting no-smoking signs in the parks and then taking them back down, accordingly, constitutes a wasted effort for Mutabiilwa’s office. Most of the large employers in the county have adopted tobacco-free policies, and the county should follow suit, he said. The Tobacco-Free New York coordinator for Chenango County said his office receives five to seven complaint calls per week once summertime events in the parks start up. Three complaints were lodged on Monday after Sunday’s musical performances in East Park.
Nearby Madison County is cracking down on where people can smoke, by banning smoking on all of the properties that it owns or leases. People driving onto county-owned property would be allowed to smoke, but only inside their cars. If a measure before the legislature passes this month, anyone caught violating the proposed smoking ban faces a fine of up to $1,000.
According to a 2009 state health department survey, 25 percent of adults in Chenango County were smokers compared to 17 percent in New York State. The rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes (12.1 compared to NYS 9.0) and asthma (13.5 versus NYS 9.7) were also comparatively higher here. Instances of lung cancer and bronchitis show up more in the county’s upper quadrant towns of Otselic and McDonough, Mutabiilwa said.
The habit hits the pocketbook as well, with an estimated $900 per household paid in federal and state taxes annually in order to cover the health costs of New Yorkers who smoke.
Chenango County taxpayers have also put a lot of money into helping smokers quit. The amount of Medicaid claims for prescription and over-the-counter smoking cessation products were nearly $86,000 in 2011 compared to just $18,000 a decade ago. Mutabiilwa said putting money into helping smokers quit is a good thing, but that money could have instead funded education programs about smoking and the chronic illnesses associated with smoking that have been cut from the state’s budget.
“As of now, we don’t have anybody (advocating against tobacco use) in the schools,” he said.
Sherburne-Earlville High School senior Megan Rogers, youth advocate for Chenango Health Network, introduced members of the committee to the concept of acting locally to prevent youth exposure to tobacco marketing. She said small steps taken on the local level can help combat the tobacco industry’s advertising budget of $1 million per hour worldwide.
Five countries, including neighboring Canada, have implemented a ban on the display of tobacco products. Twenty communities in Massachusetts and the City of San Francisco have banned the sale of tobacco in pharmacies and any store that contains a pharmacy.
“The sale of tobacco in pharmacies sends a mixed message, that a place of health is selling a product that causes disease and death,” she said.
Rogers described for committee the myriad of loopholes that tobacco companies use to limit U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation.
Newly-appointed Smyrna Supervisor Michael Khoury said the disconnect between federal level subsidies for tobacco farmers and state-funded cessation programs made it difficult to battle the industry.