EVEN though we don’t need another reason to support the county’s latest anti-smoking campaign, we found one. That is, a reported link between cigarettes and terrorism.

In its Aug. 14 edition, Newsweek reporters Dan Ephron and Michael Isikoff uncovered a federal indictment against Imad Hammoud and other Lebanese Americans who allegedly would buy cigarettes in North Carolina where taxes are low and truck them to Michigan, where they’d sell them for a $10-per-carton profit. The federal agents said Hammoud, who has ties to Hezbollah, the terrorist group at war with Israel in Lebanon, would funnel cash from the illegal smokes scheme in Detroit to Hezbollah operatives in the Middle East.

The news magazine reported that Hammoud allegedly was running as much as $500,000 in cigarettes across state lines in 2002 – coincidentally, during Hezbollah’s successful military build-up in southern Lebanon.

While Hezbollah rockets have killed dozens of Israeli citizens, in part financed by the sale of cigarettes in Detroit, if the FBI is correct, the direct connection between cigarette smoking and mortality is very well-established.

Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart attacks, emphysema and a host of other types of cancers.

Perhaps the health message is reaching Southern Californians, where the number of smokers has been steadily decreasing.

For instance, smoking among Los Angeles County residents reached an all-time low 14.6percent, according to the county’s Department of Public Health.

Yet, the number of Asian and Latino men are smoking at higher rates – affixed at 19.6percent and 16.6percent, respectively. Many Asian and Latino men smoke in their home countries, where taxes are lower and health data on tobacco use more scarce. They are bringing their unhealthful habits to these shores, often to local parks and public places where children play. This type of cultural vestige has no redeeming value.

That’s why we are supporting the targeting of Asian and Latino males, who smoke twice as much as their famale counterparts, by the county Department of Public Health and the San Gabriel-based Asian Youth Center.

Two fronts emerge.

One, the new countywide anti-smoking campaign or “cig-alert” helped by health groups and pharmacists as well. The county’s “It’s Quitting Time, L.A.!” campaign will try to convert 200,000 smokers by 2010, according to the county’s Tobacco Control and Prevention Program.

The Asian Youth Center has urged a crackdown on smoking in Rosemead parks, where group volunteers recently picked up 1,500 butts in a single afternoon amid playgrounds, ball fields and picnic areas.

Last, the the city of Rosemead responded by banning smoking in public parks, which went into effect Aug.11. We hope other cities move ahead with similar bans and health campaigns that protect the public’s lungs and help smokers of all ethnicities to kick the tobacco addiction.

Source: Whittier

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