Are states spending enough on tobacco control and prevention?

Despite collecting billions in tobacco-related revenues, states plan to spend relatively little on control and prevention programs in the 2015 fiscal year.

States this fiscal year are expected to collect $25.6 billion in revenues from payouts from the blockbuster 1998 tobacco settlement as well as tobacco taxes, according to a new report, by a coalition of groups opposed to smoking. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention recommends states spend $3.3 billion overall on control and prevention. Yet states only have plans to spend $490 million—the equivalent of about 15 percent of the CDC-recommended amount and 2 percent of the tobacco-related revenues.

Only two states—North Dakota and Alaska—plan to spend as much on tobacco control and prevention as recommended by the CDC, according to the report, titled “Broken Promises to Our Children” and produced by a coalition of groups including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids,the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.

Five other states—Delaware, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Wyoming and Maine—plan to spend half the amount recommended by the CDC, while 31 states and D.C. plan to spend less than a fifth of the recommended amount. New Jersey is the only state to have dedicated zero funds to tobacco prevention this year. In its report earlier this year, the CDC said its recommendations for tobacco control and prevention spending would help “to reduce tobacco use and the personal and societal burdens of tobacco-related disease and death.” That report identifies tobacco use as ” the single most preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States.”

 “Every scientific authority that has studied the issue, including the Surgeon General, the CDC, the [Institute of Medicine], the President’s Cancer Panel and the National Cancer Institute, has concluded that when properly funded, implemented and sustained, these programs reduce smoking among both kids and adults,” write the authors of the “Broken Promises” report.

Letter to the Editor. GT task. models www.nytimes.com

To the Editor:

At the age of 89, and recovering from two knee replacements, I am deeply disappointed in David Brooks’s column.

Mr. Brooks should walk down the halls of America’s nursing homes and see the number of elderly women sitting in the hall outside their rooms, staring listlessly into space most of the day, or hear their screams of “help!” at night, repeated again and again.

Even in upscale residences inhabited by the wealthy elderly, he could imagine what it would be like to live day after day, night after night, in the same environment, encircled by one’s aging, feeble and dying peers.

The elderly in this country are essentially invisible. We have little role in society. Much of our time is spent looking after our aging bodies. We no longer drive (if we are smart!) and are locked into television’s drivel for entertainment.

I know that I am luckier than most, still in my home, with a partner of many years, blessed with so many younger friends and loving children, still writing, sometimes even teaching.

But my heart bleeds for so many of my contemporaries, alone in a society that does not seem to care.

EDWARD W. WOOD Jr.
Denver, Dec. 6, 2014

To the Editor:

David Brooks and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, whose article in The Atlantic about not wanting to live past 75 he cites, philosophize about health and attitudes, but their approach through averages shows insensitivity to individuals who vary in so many ways.

Dr. Emanuel suggests that people over 75 will have little or no purpose so they should expend no effort to live longer. I am over 75 and still very much have purpose. Perhaps he is trying to hold down the national cost of health care.

Mr. Brooks suggests that elders have more empathy, knowledge and maybe wisdom. Yes, some, but many do not. Surely he has seen the stubbornness, the surviving hatred and the loss of perspective that too often accompanies old age, not to mention of those in need, physically, emotionally and financially.

I am pleased to be among those smiling, but I feel lucky, not typical. I wish these able observers had shown more sensitivity in their writing about older people.

DAVID SCHENKER
Evanston, Ill., Dec. 5, 2014

Letter to Editor: how does it look like? GT task

To the Editor:

I am 95, and my mind is still functioning, I have an excellent memory, and a great family and friends — all of whom are one, two or three generations younger than I.

I am content, but not happy. I miss my husband and the many friends of my generation. What I have learned is to leave my children and grandchildren to find their own way, even if it is not my way. Love them and accept them. Get along with everyone and don’t be critical. There are many ways to live, and who is to say what is right and what is wrong? Certainly not I.

BEVERLY BORTIN
Walnut Creek, Calif., Dec. 5, 2014

IT ENABLE SOCIAL MEDIA Vs PRESS. IELTS ESSAY

The IT enabled social media platforms have become the common-man’s Press, and, as a result, newspapers have become less significant in many circles, say among youngsters, professionals and even new generation politicians.

·         Are social media spaces as powerful as the Press?

·         What is the substance behind the “less significant” argument on newspapers?

Social media portals have come a long way as platforms for common man’s expression and information needs and they are making their mark among some. However, the ‘less significant’ claim on the age-old newspapers is out of place.  

Newspapers too powerful to be outshone by any other media form, whether it is electronic or print or audio or audio-visual. The thing social medias are very recent in origin, and their reach is proportional to the digital literary of the populace. Besides this, newspapers are in all regional languages and the come calling every find morning making people’s lives more meaningful and informed. Social medias are able to make people express themselves, and press is not as expressing as the other, and the former much cheaper and the latter is a little expensive. But when it comes to their individual power, social medias might be globally binding, newspapers are locally bold and democratically crucial.

In such a context, it is easier to prove that the ‘less significant’ argument is premature How can an age-old tradition of printing, publishing and reading go insignificant due to the onslaught of a media of the digitally educated? It is impossible. Political leaders, techno savvy younger bloods and some IT driven professionals may be falling back on social medias for sharing their thoughts and keeping their thought processes influenced. But that is not enough to undermine a media like the Press. It is too big for social media portals.

My conclusion is social medias are powerful places for expression and information, and they will be more so for common man in the coming days, but the Press is not up for anyone’s influences thus making it insignificant. The Press is one, only one of its kind and formidable.

290 words

Jaypeesdoc. 11.12.14

www.jpsukham.blogspot.com. Google. Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash

IT was saving all the way in the past, but it is spending today

It was saving maximum amount of money for the people some three-four decades ago, but for many it is spending spree these days.

·         Why is this reversal of attitude?

·         What do you think are positive and negative implications of such a shift?  

The people of all times have always had high regard for money. This fact notwithstanding, the world today experiences a reversal of attitude to money: instead of saving it, many are engaged in indiscriminate spending. Let me trace out the reasons and identify the ins and outs of it.

In olden times, making money involved a lot of sweat and blood. Naturally, they saved as much as they could. But the story today is the other way round where people enjoy huge possibilities for making quicker money. Many people believe that the coming days are going to offer them much greater chances for minting money. For example, plum pay packages, chances to multiply the earnings and the opportunities that come calling keep the confidence graph of many people mounting unprecedentedly. It is spending all the way, no wonder at all.

This spending spree is good in the sense that when one spends, lot many others earn. That means spending is like making money work. For example, when people spend on expensive consumables, the manufacturers, dealers, retailers and the like are likely to earn. The governments too stand to gain by way of tax. Spending keeps money mobile.

The downsides of too much spending are price rise, rich-poor divide, social evils and rising crimes. For example, when spending is higher so is the need for earning, and the need for greater earning may make many people go astray and they would resort to evil and asocial ways.

The people of those days had their own reasons to save money and their followers these days have got a set of different reasons to spend their money. Though it is good in a way, too much spending is likely to do much more harm than good. It is always good to keep a little back for tomorrow, I would say.   

285 words

Ajaypeesdoc.

11.12.14

www.jpsukham.blogspot.com. Google. Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash

Social media Vs. Press. task II

The IT enabled social media platforms have become the common-man’s Press, and, as a result, newspapers have become less significant in many circles, say among youngsters, professionals and even new generation politicians.

·         Are social media spaces as powerful as the Press?

·         What is the substance behind the “less significant” argument on newspapers?

Openers

Complete these openers with your own ideas and apply these when you open paragraphs or respond to ideas, opinions, views and arguments.

• It is know to all that......................
• It is an accepted fact that....................
• There is a common belief that.................
• It is written on the wall that................
• There is unanimous opinion on the fact that...............
• Not many can disagree with the idea that.................
• It is hard to agree with the view that....................
• I do not find it hard to support the view that.............
• It is a little harder for me to endorse the arguement that...............

jaypee

Nuclear family women and their financial edge ielts task II

Over a couple of decades, women have been able to make substantial contributions to the financial independence of nuclear families all over the world.  

·       

How do they make this happen?

·    Do you think that this financial advantage is at the cost of some familial obligations expected of women in general?

It has been long since women have started putting in greatly to the financial welfare of their nuclear families. They achieve this fiat in several ways, but it is, at times, by way of compromising a couple of familial commitments. 40

The first thing with which women of the times have this extra financial edge is the choosy education they have had, leading to industry-ready qualifications. For example, job-ready, tailor-made qualifications let them enjoy greater employability quotient, and the same is what the new generation employers are looking for. This is followed by mobility and change of mindset they harness of late. To exemplify, men have come to terms with the fact that women are a force, and this force is accentuated by faster movement and affordable timesaving technologies. No wonder, family women are wealthier. 95

This commendable monitory advantage notwithstanding, there are a few things that are compromised for it. Many new generation working women are compelled to give certain familial obligations a back bench. For instances, smaller children are put in day-care facilities, the grown up ones are kept in boarding schools and, above all, some women may even go to the extent saying ‘no’ to child-bearing, at least for a few initial years of their married life. Ignoring the welfare of older parents and depriving infants of their tender mother-care are a few of their neglected familial obligations.   95

In brief, women of different stature and expectations might follow diverse ways to achieve the said financial edge in their families. But, this position comes at a cost and it is paid in the form of adjustments, to say the least. 40   

270 words

Ajaypeesdoc. 10.12.14

Task two today

If nuclear parents are able to foster gender parity inside the family from the early ages of their children's childhood, gender discrimination and violence against the opposite gender can be eradicated in the long run.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion? 

Vocabulary

Check out these words in your dictionary

Sideline

Ignore

Leave somebody the lurch

Cold shoulder

Neglecting

Turn a blind eye

Turn a deaf ear

Undermine

Sweep something under the carpet

Task II on women and their changing role

Women all over the world are making bigger differences in the financial well being of their families than they used to some 10-20 years before.

Why is it so happening? 

Do you think this financial advantage of women is at the cost of some other family expectations?

Telshi from the UK solves task II

Some people believe that person’s future can be planned and executed but, some others hold the view that life is so unpredictable that planning one’s future would not work as we expect.

Discuss and say what you feel about the unpredictability of life.

In today’s world, people are more aware about their future life. Many people hold the opinion that through planning life can be executed. Others, however, disagree that nobody can expect what would happen in life. This essay will discuss both views with relevant examples.

 First of all, it is true that planning is essential to achieve success in life. If people have available resources such as money and education, they could plan life according to their wish. To cite an example, well educated people get good job opportunities out of sheer planning. Therefore, parents try to provide better educational facilities to their children. Moreover, people save money as an asset for their children which would help them to lead quality life. Planning works in many cases.

On the other hand, it is fact that life is unpredictable and it would change at any time. People have no idea about what would happen in the future. For instance, some people could not fulfill their wishes in life due to diseases or unexpected turn of events and developments. Therefore, pre-planned life may not be always work out, especially in some situations when parents scarify their ambitions for the better life of their children.

In my point of view, even though future life is unexpected, planning has its own importance to lead a successful life. People should be careful when planning their life and should adopt the changes that would happen in their life.

To conclude, well planned life has got great significance. However, life would not be expected same as people may plan it out. Therefore, it is good to be cautious all the while of their future life and should accept changes as they come by.

Line graph on food meat consumption in china. TElsh

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The graph below shows the changes in food consumption by Chinese people between 1985 and 2010. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The line graph compares the changes that happened in the consumption of food, mentioned in grams per person per wee in China from 1985 to 2010.

It is evident from the graph that people used more fish compared to meat and salt in those periods. In 1985, the amount was 600 grams per week, and then it gradually increased to 700 grams, followed by a slight decline to 600 grams in 1995. While, in the following years, there was a continuous spurt in the fish consumption and reached to 850 grams in 2010.

It can be seen that approximately 490 grams of salt was consumed in 1985. Then, its usage decreased in the following two decades, and reached to 200 grams in 2010, a fall in quantity far more than half. Whereas, people used only 100 grams meat in 1985, but,there was steady growth in its usage over the next 20 years and reached to 200 grams in 2010, two times increase.

To sum up, it is clear from the graph that consumption of fish and meat increased while the usage of salt decreased during those 25 years. 

A WRITING tip

Examiners are looking for good English, not lofty points and high-sounding words and disctionary-searching idiomatic expressions.

Concentrate on your English: Read every sentence you write before you start the next sentence. when a paragraph is up read the whole body, and go back to the question and check, how accurate you had been. take cues from the introduction and connect the done paragraph with the going-to-done paragraph. You cannot assume; rather you have to be sure.
Examiners get hardly 5 mnts to see your paper. Make their job easier. Write well so that they read well, understand you language will and score it well, and help you thereby.
jaypee

jAYPEES Friday question on carbon menace: IELTS task Two

The carbon menace is real, and the world governments have been mulling (seriously considering) ways to scale down its footprint for quite some time now. However, there is hardly any let up in the concerns it raises.

·         Why is it so happening?

·         Do you think the world can go on like this for long? 

THE SOLVED PAPER FOR THIS ESSAY WILL FOLLOW IN TWO DAYS; KEEP TABS ON.....