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A Call For Clarity In The Midst Of A Blue Fog: Now More Than Ever, We Need The Lt. Gov's Healthy Guam Initiative
Jump to full article: Guam News Factor (gu), 2009-04-09
Intro: As far as Guam is concerned, the latest Centers For Disease Control report on smoking nationwide (1998-2007) tells the same old story -- our island sparks up even more than "Light My Lucky" Kentucky, which leads all 50 states. At 31.1%, one in every three adults smokes on Guam, 11.3% higher the national average (see WebMD story on the CDC report). Coupled with other bad habits like poor diet, high alcohol consumption and lack of exercise, it isn't hard to imagine why Guam also suffers from a high incidence of smoking-related illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Observing the progression in 2007, Lt. Governor Mike Cruz launched the Healthy Guam Initiative to reduce smoking and overconsumption and to encourage exercise and healthy family activity. . . .
A May 2002 United Nation's World Health Organization (WHO) statistical report lists incidence of male smoking at 51% of men and 10% of women in Japan, 67% of men in China, and as many as 86% of men in rural Cambodia.
According to WHO's report, high rates in Asia are attributable to many factors, including a lack of knowledge about health risks, hard-won social privilege, weak tobacco laws, heavy advertising by American tobacco concerns, accessibility to young people, and government involvement in the tobacco industry -- such as the Japan Finance Ministry's major stake in a multinational called Japan Tobacco.
Those who read between the lines will draw parallels to faintly similar conditions on Guam. But compared to its Asian brothers, Guam is most decisively ahead of the quitting curve. And we have even our Administration's fits and starts to thank for that!
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