I was disappointed to find out today's UW Spring Etiquette Dinner is supported and will be attended by Philip Morris, the largest manufacturer of tobacco products in the world and thus responsible for the lion's share of 5 million premature deaths each year. It was also reported that Philip Morris has been a recruiter at UW job fairs.

The University of Washington is one of the best known and most accomplished medical and public health institutions in the United States, each year receiving more federal research dollars than any other public university. Many research and program dollars are devoted to working toward reducing tobacco use and the diseases and deaths it causes. In fact, Washington state ranks seventh nationally in per capita spending on tobacco prevention and control as a result of Washington's Tobacco Prevention and Control program's $29 million annual budget, and it has the fifth lowest smoking rate in the United States.

Isn't the University of Washington working at cross-purposes by supporting both big tobacco business and research for prevention and treatment of smoking addiction? What will it take to remove big tobacco business from campus?

Gwen Greiner

School of Public Health and Community Medicine