No money? Stop smoking

On April 28, there was an article in The Spokesman-Review regarding pregnant women smoking. The part that caught my eye was that the lower the income the woman had the more likely she was to smoke. My question is why? Cigarettes are about $7 per pack.

It seems to me that if you have limited funds, the first thing to do would be to quit smoking. Prior to moving to Spokane, I worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services for 12 years. Clients would come to see me trying to get more funds, saying that they could not make it on the money we allotted them. About 75 percent of them would be lighting cigarettes during the meeting. At that time, smoking was allowed in public buildings.

My gut reaction to respond to the smoking client was, “If you stopped smoking, you would have more available funds to meet expenses.” Of course, I was not allowed to say that. I will never understand why folks with limited finances would start smoking.

Patricia A. McManus

Spokane Valley