Don’t blame state for smokers’ health

Randall Davis, Henderson

Thursday, June 6, 2013 | 2 a.m.

Regarding “Nevada among unhealthy states” by the McClatchy News Service in Saturday’s newspaper: I read the article with interest looking for what criteria were being used to make this judgement and why the state ranked so low.

However, what I noted was that Nevada was actually mentioned only three times: in the headline, once in a listing of the most unhealthy states, where Nevada apparently ranks ninth from the bottom, and finally as the state with the highest percentage of senior smokers.

Well, duh, as far as Nevada goes, you could have ended the article right there in one sentence. (It would be amazing for any jurisdiction with a high incidence of cigarette smoking to not rate at or near the bottom of just about any health measure.)

Most of the article (just about the entire article in fact) is about other states and general health issues facing the elderly.

Nevada and Las Vegas have done pretty well over the past 70 years to create a viable community out of desert.

It’s generally recognized that Nevada needs to create economic alternatives to tourism and gaming if it is to develop some resistance to the swings of the economy.

I think promoting the state as great for senior retirement would be a positive step in this regard. After all, one person moving here probably contributes 50 times more to the economy than what one average tourist does.

But articles like this headlining Nevada as “unhealthy” don’t help. It’s not right to imply the fault is in the state, especially when the health issues are driven by personal choices that would be ameliorated by just quitting smoking and going for a walk.