Health Commissioner Says City Doing Right Thing By Making Tobacco Products Harder To Get
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago's top health official has no doubts that the city is doing the right thing by making cigarettes and other tobacco products harder to get for teenagers and more expensive, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore.
City Health Commissioner Julie Morita says there's nothing good about tobacco products, from cancer and lung disease to heart disease.
"I think when we look at root causes of poor health, we talk about education and we talk about housing, we talk about transportation, but we can also look at bad habits that really lead to long-lasting negative health effects and tobacco is one of those," she said.
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The City Council recently voted to raise the age you can legally buy cigarettes to 21, raised the tax on non-cigarette tobacco products and banned chewing tobacco from sports venues. But, businesses in some border wards complain they'll lose sales to the suburbs and Indiana.
Dr. Morita says they should survive. She says the CVS Pharmacy chain stopped selling tobacco products altogether and it is doing quite well. There are healthy products stores can sell.
Dr. Julie Morita is the guest on our "At Issue" program this week, and you can hear more of her thoughts coming up at 9:30 p.m. and online.
