Presidential Smoking = Public Health Opportunity

Chicago Tribune

Arthur Caplan, PhD , director of the Center for Bioethics and Caryn Lerman, PhD, a Mary W. Calkins Professor of Psychiatry and deputy director of the Abramson Cancer Center, were among the authors of an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune about how President Barack Obama's ongoing battle with cigarette provides an opportunity to do something to reduce the 400,000 American lives lost every year to smoking. But, the authors note, there is at least one big different between Obama and most Americans when it comes to quitting: His access to enlightened medical advice helped him achieve and apparently sustain a drastic reduction in his smoking. That strategy may not be available to many Americans, but the authors say it should be -- although his seemingly flexible use of medicinal nicotine products raises important treatment policy issues. Read More