Public Health Magazine: Spring 1996, Vol.4, No.1
From the Dean

This spring marks a time of change for CSPH's flagship publication. The clean, modern design, fresh moniker--Columbia Public Health--and news-oriented feature stories, are intended to complement a revamped editorial policy emphasizing timely, topical information directed at a wide range of readers, from alumni and academicians to the interested lay person. This broad appeal is reflected in our lead story on smoking. With numerous federal investigations of cigarette manufacturers underway, and the wall of tobacco industry solidarity finally crumbling, smoking is a national front-page issue as this publication goes to press.

A study in the February, 1996 American Journal of Public Health estimated that a third of subjects who ever smoked on a daily basis started at age 13 or younger, and two-thirds started by age 16. Smoking is an addictive, debilitating habit, eventually responsible for the deaths of over 400,000 Americans each year. Three thousand young people take up smoking each day, with a high percentage of those addicted to tobacco having first smoked before age 18. Such startling statistics, and the real-life tragedies behind them, prompted the Clinton Administration last fall to propose a comprehensive and coordinated set of measures to significantly reduce the number of adolescents who become addicted to nicotine in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.

Recent smoking-related research at CSPH includes investigations into maternal smoking during pregnancy, precise measurement of damage caused by smoking, and the effectiveness of legislation proscribing cigarette sales to minors. While focusing on anti-smoking efforts by CSPH faculty, this issue also explores academic opinions on tobacco from around the campus, highlighting the unique perspectives of experts from the schools of journalism, law and business.

Two other major public health topics--AIDS and children's health--are also featured in this magazine. In AIDS in the Age of Incongruities, it is reported that while many HIV/AIDS patients are satisfied with the level of care that they receive, the emergence of a two-tiered health care system in this country--one for the wealthy and one for everyone else--threatens the quality of care for all. And, in a fine piece on school based clinics, the reader is treated to an engaging glimpse inside CSPH's newest clinic for young people, located at George Washington High School here in Washington Heights.

Beyond the continuing high quality public health research of our faculty, all three feature stories in this edition of Columbia Public Health reflect CSPH's continuing commitment to improving the health of the public, generally, with a particular focus on our own immediate communities in Washington Heights and Central Harlem.

Allan Rosenfield, MD
Dean