Counting the years

Counting the years

Toledo Blade: Americans, in general, are living longer. But in some parts of the country, life expectancies actually have declined in recent years, especially among women.

On average, girls born in America in 2007 are expected to live 81.3 years. But a girl baby born in Collier County, Fla., is expected to live to be 86, while one born the same day in Holmes County, Miss. likely will live only 73.5 years.

As governors in several states talk about dumping people from overtaxed Medicaid rolls and lawmakers in Washington bemoan Medicare’s expanding budget, it should be noted that diseases related to smoking, obesity, and even high blood pressure would be much less common if people ate less, exercised more, and quit smoking. That makes the Ohio General Assembly’s raids on tobacco settlement money that was supposed to be spent on smoking cessation and prevention programs, and the lack of funding for smoking-ban enforcement in the new state budget, especially shortsighted and galling.