Gift nothing to spit at
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office will receive a life-saving tool from a manufacturer of cancer-causing products.
County commissioners approved a deal Tuesday that will allow the Sheriff’s Office to receive a six-wheel all-terrain vehicle from the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., whose brands include Copenhagen and Skoal.
The oversize ATV, valued at more than $9,100, has a cargo area that can be used to remove injured people from remote areas as well as to transport supplies for search-and-rescue missions. The Sheriff’s Office currently has no such vehicle.
The county had to agree not to sue U.S. Smokeless Tobacco if anyone gets hurt on the Polaris Ranger 6x6 and to issue a press release announcing the donation. But Undersheriff Jeff Tower said there’s no obligation to install the snuff and chewing tobacco decals that will come with the vehicle.
So don’t look for the Copenhagen label if you’re lost in the woods.
Tower acknowledged the irony of one county agency helping a tobacco company look good while another, the Spokane Regional Health District, battles tobacco-caused cancer.
Still, he said, “I can’t see a better use of their profits than to assist in our search-and-rescue operations. At least in this case, I think, it’s going to a worthy cause.”
The Health District also tries to put tobacco money to good use. The district’s tobacco prevention and control program is partially funded by money from a 1998 settlement between cigarette manufacturers and numerous state attorneys general.
Program manager Christopher Zilar said the Health District plans to use some $260,000 in tobacco settlement money in its current fiscal year to encourage people not to start smoking and to provide classes, therapy and other measures to help smokers quit – especially pregnant smokers.
Tower said the idea of taking an all-terrain vehicle from a tobacco company raised some eyebrows among county officials. However, county commissioners approved the grant without comment.
According to the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Web site, the company has been donating all-terrain vehicles to emergency service organizations around the country for several years. So far this year, it has given away 63 vehicles.
The company says it has limited its advertising under a 1998 smokeless tobacco settlement with 45 state attorneys general. The settlement calls for the company to contribute up to $100 million over 10 years for public programs aimed at reducing tobacco use by young people.
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco says its other corporate giving is focused on education, preserving American traditions and helping to meet “critical community needs.”
Cancer-fighting organizations see a critical need for people to quit using tobacco in any form.
The U.S. surgeon general determined in 1986 that smokeless tobacco is not a safe substitute for smoking cigarettes and that it “can cause cancer and a number of noncancerous conditions, and can lead to nicotine addiction and dependence.”
The National Cancer Institute, which has been warning people away from snuff and chew since 1991, says smokeless tobacco contains 28 carcinogens and causes precancerous lesions, gum disease and gum recession, and increases the risk of various oral cancers.