Editorial: Cut would risk health of public

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2003 | 9:01 a.m.

As it seeks to overcome a $700 million deficit, the state of Nevada must not be indiscriminate in downsizing its budget. Cuts in some programs must be considered intolerable because of their potential for harm. Such is the case with the Clark County Health District. In 2001 the state provided the district with $1.7 million for the biennium, which amounted to 5 percent of its total budget. Last week the Senate and Assembly budget committees discussed slashing that amount to $400,000, which would be 1 percent of the health district's budget. Nationwide, local health districts typically receive 23 percent of their budgets from state governments. The possible consequences of severely slashing an already underfunded public health budget cannot possibly be worth the savings, even in these trying times. Just ask anyone who has ever had food poisoning.

Clark County is home to more than 12,000 restaurants, and the health district's 40 inspectors try to check them all at least once a year. A cut of the magnitude being discussed could result in many restaurants going for years with no inspections. Inspections would focus on restaurants with histories of violations and the others would be on their own. From the standpoint of consumers, this cannot be allowed to happen, as food poisoning is a painful and sometimes fatal ordeal. The best protection for diners is a restaurant's knowledge that an inspector can stop by any time. Infrequent inspections could lead to complacency in many restaurants and that would pose a serious risk to public health. From a business perspective, an outbreak of food poisoning could lead to a drop in tourism, just when there's a glimmer of hope that the economy is on the rebound.

Restaurant inspections would not be the only casualty. The poison-control hotline, which receives 25,000 calls a year -- many of them emergencies -- would be shut down this summer. Imagine a parent, whose child has just sipped from a bottle of cleansing agent, frantically calling the number on a sticker by the phone -- and getting a recording that the line has been disconnected. Obviously, that's intolerable. We are not in such financial straits that we need to put public health in jeopardy.