It's a glass half full/tobacco pipe half empty disclosure from the American Lung Association.
As in, hey, gang, three Orange County cities received C grades when it came to efforts to stamp out tobacco-caused deaths and diseases.
Or … DOH! … every other OC city received stinkin' F's.
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That's what it says–using different words up to and including DOH!–in the Lung Association's State of Tobacco Control 2014 report released this week in connection with the 50th anniversary of the historic 1964 Surgeon General's report that linked smoking to lung cancer and other diseases for the first time.
Each California city was graded based on whether laws are adequately protecting citizens from the toll tobacco use takes on lives and the economy. Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods and Santa Ana were the only OC cities that received the passing grades.
“Despite making great strides in reducing smoking rates in America, there is still much work to be done here in Orange County,” said Dr. Afif El-Hasan, an American Lung Association in California Governing Board member, in the report announcement. “Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and illness in the U.S.”
“Once a national leader in tobacco control policies, California is now falling behind in protecting its citizens from tobacco,” reads the announcement. “While the state earned an A grade for smoke-free air policies, it received a D for its low cigarette tax, an F for failing to sufficiently fund tobacco prevention and control programs, and another F for poor coverage of smoking cessation and treatment services.”
Grades for all California cities can be found at www.lung.org/california.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.