To the editor:

I am baffled and disappointed that the editorial staff would criticize a grant award given to Kansas University Medical Center from the most prestigious government health research institution, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to combat one of the most pressing and dire health risks facing our country: smoking. With the Great American Smokeout being held this week, many of us concerned about smoking rates in Kansas are very pleased that the KU Medical Center has been provided the means to identify new ways to make smoking cessation programs successful.

The smoking-related health care costs for treating heart and lung conditions and many cancers are enormous in Kansas. It is good health and good fiscal policy to invest in programs that assist smokers who want to quit. In addition, grants from the NIH are peer-reviewed and the most prestigious barometer of a researcher’s or institution’s quality and work. Is the Journal-World the appropriate judge of what saves lives and saves money in Kansas? Or should that task rightly belong to the doctors, nurses and researchers at KU and the scientists who review grant proposals at the NIH? I think it is the Journal-World who needs to get real.

Mary Jayne Hellebust,

Tobacco Free Kansas

Coalition, Topeka