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SC Bill Would Use Smoking-Prevention Money for Cancer Screenings Instead

18.05.12

Groups whose purpose is to fight cancer find themselves in the odd position of opposing a bill that would provide more money for cancer screenings. That's because the bill, which has passed the SC House, would take the money from smoking prevention and cessation efforts.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Brian White, R-Anderson, would take half of the $5 million that currently goes to smoking prevention and cessation and use it instead for breast cancer and colorectal cancer screenings.

"It's not taking a lot away from cessation. We're still doing that. We're doing the quit lines, which I think everyone wants to do, and be able to provide some form of treatments and aid those that wish to quit smoking to do so, but we also need to look at the cancer side," he says.

Nancy Cheney, government relations director for the American Cancer Society in South Carolina, says she appreciates any efforts to provide more money for cancer screenings, but she doesn't think it should come at the expense of trying to prevent smoking and help smokers quit.

Source: News Channel 7

S.J. doc's TV spot sparks backlash

18.05.12

"I'm against smoking, so I thought Proposition 29 was a good idea. Then I read it. It raises $735 million in tobacco taxes, but not one penny goes to new funding for cancer treatment."

Proposition 29 supporters, including volunteers with the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and American Heart Association, staged the demonstration to disavow what Porter said, to bring attention to the need for more research funding and to put pressure on Porter to recant.

"Would you listen to a doctor in commercials paid for by Big Tobacco?," one of their fliers states.

"La Donna Porter does not speak for the California medical community, she speaks for Big Tobacco. La Donna Porter is helping a tobacco industry that has killed more than 100 million people worldwide."

In fact, the executive board of the California Medical Association, representing more than 35,000 physicians, unanimously endorsed Proposition 29, saying on fliers that they take seriously their primary responsibility to "prevent disease wherever they can."

Source: Stockton Record