Health Commissioner Defends Closing Children's Dental Clinics, Funding Anti-Smoking Ads
By Azi PaybarahIn continuing testimony at the City Council's budget hearing on H.H.S., Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden is defending his agency’s decision to save money by closing dental clinics for children, but not, for example, reducing funds for the anti-smoking campaign, which he said costs $5 million annually.
“Compared with all of the other options, we see this as the least bad,” said Commissioner Frieden, referring to the clinics.
Frieden told City Council members that funding “dramatic” anti-smoking campaigns correlates with a decline in the number of New Yorkers who smoke. Frieden said making cuts to that advertising campaign would result in “more deaths.”
Later, when asked by City Councilman Oliver Koppell, the commissioner admitted that the money the city receives from the state and federal government from an omnibus anti-smoking settlement is “not earmarked for any specific purpose.”
Koppell then said, “That money is used for budget balancing,” and wondered aloud, if, during a budget crisis, not smoking should return to being the “responsibility of the individual.”
Frieden maintained throughout the exchange that if the advertising campaign was reduced, “more people would die.”
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I think it's pretty arrogant to say, "my anti-smoking campaign causes hordes of people not to smoke." I think the price has discouraged a few, I think the ad campaigns helps a few more, and maybe nudges a few to quit, or not start. But I think we already pay fortunes to teach our children the truth about smoking, at young an important ages. I'm VERY suspicious that these ad campaigns really do all that much, especially to the adults they are aimed at.
Hasn't anyone noticed that the entire world….even freakin France has begun to see the light on tobacco use? The whole world is waking up to this reality on their own, as our society advances in knowledge and sophistication. I don't think that our dear and awesome mayor, even though it's one of his biggest personal pet peeves, can take credit for something that has been going on in places like San Francisco and L.A. a full decade ahead of us.
I can forgive his ego's need to feel ownership of this victory….way to go Mr. Mayor, here' s your soccer trophy. But to use it as justification to cut needy children's dental care? I still can't believe I'm reading this correctly. Please someone close to him, give him a little glove-slap, please?
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