• 2/8/2007
  • Hampton Roads, VA
  • staff
  • DailyPress.com

Here’s what the Surgeon General said about smokeless tobacco: “The oral use of smokeless tobacco represents a significant health risk. It is not a safe substitute for smoking cigarettes. It can cause cancer and a number of noncancerous oral conditions and can lead to nicotine addiction and dependence.”

Here’s what the National Cancer Institute says about smokeless tobacco: “Smokeless tobacco can cause permanent gum recession, mouth sores, precancerous lesions in the mouth, and cancers of the mouth and throat. … Oral cancer … is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. It can spread to other parts of the body quickly. Surgery needed to treat oral cancer is often extensive and disfiguring. On average, only half of those with the disease will survive more than five years.”

Here’s what Philip Morris says about smokeless tobacco: “Smokeless tobacco products are addictive, cause serious diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and other diseases of the mouth, gums, teeth; may increase the risk of serious diseases when used in combination with smoking; cause adverse reproductive effects and should not be used during pregnancy; and are not a safe alternative to smoking.”

Here’s what Gov. Tim Kaine and the York County Board of Supervisors say about smokeless tobacco: Let’s give Philip Morris hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars to make the stuff.

In fact, Walter Zaremba, chairman of the county board, is quoted in the governor’s press release as saying this of Philip Morris: “They have been an excellent corporate citizen and this expansion will create high-paying employment opportunities and significant tax revenue for our community.”

Now we know what wasn’t admitted to when the governor announced that the state is giving Philip Morris $320,000 to reopen its York County plant, on top of $350,000 the county is contributing. It will manufacture Taboka, a new, spit-free (charming, right?), smokeless product that involves placing tobacco directly into the mouth. It’s bound to be popular … something about the addictive nature of tobacco.

The governor’s office and the county made much of the nice salaries the plant will pay workers to produce the new death-and-disease delivery system. Their thinking suggests an alarming rationalization: that enabling health problems is OK, so long as some folks get fat paychecks.

This decision uses the public’s money to facilitate a significant public health problem, one that causes disease, death and more drains on the public dollars that pay for health care and disability benefits.