Below you will see an excerpt about the further increase of taxes on the sale of cigarettes. I read this and once again thought about my all to frequently used expression. "We have not only got the wrong end of the stick but we have the wrong stick all together." (See  A message to the Bastards Part 2)

"On February 4th, 2009, the Federal Government enacted legislation to fund
the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that
increases excise taxes on cigarettes by 158%."

"Big Tobacco" is such an easy target. We all know that smoking is really bad for us. I myself used to be a smoker and probably still would be if not for one special woman whom I wish to grow old with. We also can assume that those forced to stay in a smoke filled room are likely receiving, to some degree or another, some ill effects from that tobacco. All this we can or at least should agree on. HOWEVER.

We, as usual, are taking the easy path. We are grabbing at the easy to grab sparkling stick rather than reaching deeper and taking a grab at the real big monster of a stick. Lets look at what we are doing first.

A 158% "sin" tax on tobacco products in order to fund children's health issues. That is a wonderful use of any tax payers dollars and I am not at all opposed to this tax. But how many children suffer health issues at the hands of second (or first) hand tobacco smoke?

A quick search of the internet turns up some interesting statistics. More so it turns up some interesting lack of statistics. For instance I can find no one willing to put up even speculation on how many children die from second hand smoke each year. Nor can I find any information on how much we estimate second hand smoke costs the taxpayer each year. But for what its worth read on.

Each year in the United States, secondhand smoke exposure is responsible for 150,000-300,000 new cases of bronchitis and pneumonia in children aged less than 18 months. This results in 7,500-15,000 hospitalizations, annually.
Source: The Center for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/secondhandsmoke.htm

This is bad I agree and I do hope the high tax on tobacco in deed helps pay for these expenses but more so encourages more people to stop smoking since obviously being a good parent is not on their agenda. Yes I said it. Parents are to blame not tobacco companies if their child is exposed to enough second hand smoke to injure them. They certainly are not getting it from school. Nor, I assume, are18 month old babies hanging out on the loading docks behind the office. And as they reach school age I can only assume they are not smoking in class or the playground or at the candy store. They are getting the second hand smoke from someone who lives in the house with them. Someone who is a lousy parent. Moving on.

Sports. Man if only you knew the kind of deaths and suffering children faced at the hands of good old "Coach Crew Cut." Just some very quick numbers. Numbers that are over twice as high as the smokers statistics and far more detailed than any vague statistics I found about children and smoking related issues. Numbers that should scare the hell out of any good parent.

Each year it is estimated that more than five million children seek treatment in hospital emergency rooms because of sports injuries. Sports injuries to youth 0-14 for 29 sports in 1997 cost the US public $49,192,781,832.
Source: US Consumer Product Safety Commission.
via: National Youth Sports Safety Foundation
http://www.nyssf.org/wframeset.html

According to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, 100,000 young athletes die each year from all cardio-vascular disorders, including cardiomyopathy, as a result of participation in sports. This is twice as many as die in auto accidents.
Source: Center for Disease Control
via: University of Massachusetts
http://people.umass.edu/excs597k/carpenter/sdathlete.htm

Death, crippling, life long pain. All these are the result of sports related injuries. And for the most part the only ones that are kept track of are those related to an "Organized" sport. The pickup game at the court or the friendly game in the back yard account for an untold more. And baseball, Americas pastime, accounts for nearly half the really bad injuries. (Read the above report through Im not in the habit of  posting whole articles without permission.) Where is the mega high tax on Spalding & Nike?

Alcohol

What about alcohol ? No not when used by children which of course is both undesirable and illegal. No, I'm thinking about children who are injured due the use of alcohol by adults. Drunk driving accidents being most obvious but there has to be so much more. How about Alcohol fueled abuse? Not to mention neglect. Malnutrition, poverty, unsanitary living conditions. The list of alcohol related causes for medical issues and deaths in children goes on and on.

Worse still it is often hidden behind a curtain of euphemisms and half cause answers. The alcohol is not listed as a cause or even secondary cause for the abuse suffered at the hands of a drunken parent. They are just victims of a terrible crime. The child who dies from malnutrition has the cause of death listed as neglect at best. Never would you see that constant use of Budweiser and Jack resulted in parents who were unable or willing to feed their child. But most of all we do not see a substantially high tax being placed on Coors or Ernest & Julio Gallo.

So yes tobacco use is bad. Use around children is even worse. Yes the exorbitantly high tobacco tax is probably a good thing in the long run because so many people will be forced to give it up purely for economic reasons. But once again we have the wrong stick in hand. We have the stick that's easy to see, but hard to see past. We have the stick that is all aglitter. It looks great on the evening news and few will reasonably argue against you but remember...

The stick that's all aglitter has a lit fuse.

The deaths will continue as long as we hold onto the wrong stick. The correct stick is hiding behind your parental evening martini and that character building soccer match. The stick lies in the smoking hands of the parents. And do we tax them higher for bringing yet another child into our already overcrowded world? No we give them tax breaks.

But that is a rant for another day.
Breeders!?