Shifting Priorities: from tobacco to obesity
State governments have used tobacco’s billions to balance their budgets while cutting $150 million from antitobacco programs over the last two years. On the airways, obesity public service announcements are lining up while a “Truth” campaign about tobacco languishes for lack of money.
“Don’t forget tobacco,” pleaded a commentary this month in The New England Journal of Medicine.
One in five Americans still smokes.
But one in three is obese.
And competition for attention is growing between the two biggest issues in public health.
