Smokers come under scrutiny on Smokeout day

Who still smokes -- and why? Those are questions researchers have begun to address as the nation today observes the 32nd Annual Great American Smokeout. Smokers are urged to quit smoking today in hopes that this day might lead to permanent smoking cessation.

But addiction experts acknowledge that it has become more difficult to make a dent in the country's smoking rates. Although millions of people have quit in the decades since the dangers of tobacco became known, about 43.4 million U.S. adults still smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two recent studies point to the challenges in curbing smoking rates.

• A study released at the recent meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians found that nicotine dependence has reached a 15-year high. Nearly 75% of people currently seeking smoking cessation treatment are categorized as highly nicotine dependent. "Previous studies suggest that individuals who have less severe nicotine dependence have already been successful at quitting, which leaves a larger percentage of patients who are highly nicotine dependent among the greater tobacco-using community," says the study's author, Dr. David P. Sachs, of the Palo Alto Center for Pulmonary Disease Prevention. Sachs says that more individualized tobacco-dependent treatments are needed to address addiction severity.
• Even some nurses, who see the devastating illnesses linked to smoking, have trouble quitting. A study published in the current issue of Nursing Research examined data from the 237,648 nurses registered in the Nurses' Health Study at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The study found death rates among former smokers in their late 70s were 1.5 times those of nonsmokers. Current smokers were 2.3 times more likely to have died by that age compared to nurses who never smoked. Smoking among nurses declined from 33.2% in 1976 to 8.4% in 2003. But, says the study's lead author, Linda Sarna of the UCLA School of Nursing: "Nurses witness firsthand how smoking devastates the health of their patients with cancer and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Yet nurses struggle with nicotine addiction like the rest of the 45 million smokers in America."

The Great American Smokeout is an invitation for smokers to take the first step toward quitting forever. For more information and help with tobacco cessation, call 1-800-784-8669 or visit the 1-800-Quit-Now website.

By the way, the Smokeout started in a small town in Massachusetts in 1971. A high school guidance counselor named Arthur Mullaney asked people to give up cigarettes for one day and donate the money they would have spent to a college scholarship fund. A few years later, the editor of a Minnesota newspaper, the Monticello Times, organized that state's first D-Day, or "Don't Smoke Day. In 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society adopted the idea and re-named it the Great American Smokeout. The rest is history. Unfortunately, smoking still isn't.

-- Shari Roan

Photo: A 1943 Saturday Evening Post cover of a nurse helping her patient light up. Credit: UCLA

Comments

[Bronty]

Lots of things are unhealthy. Actually, let's a put it a different way: A lot of things are not designed to prolong life. What underlies public health policy these days is a belief that anything that does not prolong life is "bad".

Smoking an occasional cigar or cigarette is common and is enjoyable for many. Exactly how "unhealthy" that is is VERY arguable, despite what anyone (health bullies) say.

Besides, why should anyone dictate to me how I value and approach life?

The same attitudes that drive religious 'conversion' drives health policy. You all want to tell people what they should value in their lives and how they should value it. You rely on bullying and social pressure and even force of law.

Shame on you, and go mind your own business.

Healthcare costs are no reason either, unless you truly want to create a totalitarian state. Working 80 hours weeks (like, for instance, medical residents) is extremely unhealthy, one could argue. Let's limit everyone to 20.

[Collin]

Hurray!

Smoking is such an antiquated, rude, and deadly habit. Why on earth does it still exist? How do people feel okay with hurting those around them with their awful vice? Aren't they embarrassed that they can be smelled from 50 feet away?

Let's move on, America. For such a progressive country it's weird that we're still so backwards.

[mark]

Anyone got a light?

[David]

Tired of seeing these smokers litter our country with their USED cigarette butts. Flicking on the streets when THEY are done. It is YOUR garbage, Please dispose of properly.
You saw I encroach on your habit, well this is my planet too and I want it to be clean as possible. Next time when you stop at a freeway exit just take a look on how ugly it looks. Hold on to it and just dump it in the trash, where it belongs!!

[Tax paying American]

Sure let's be progressive, I completely agree...I mean really the right to bare arms was from over 200 years ago, surely they would think so today, so let's do away with it...and really how old is that bible..come on folks let;s be progressive!

What I find funny is how you Communist thinking people seem to not realize that the more people that quit, the more YOUR taxes will go up...why? because those people aren't paying $3.00+ a DAY in taxes...and so somebody else has to, and guess who? YOU!!!

Have you ever heard of a littl;e thing like prohibition? That didn't end up so good either!

[Laure]

Bronty, there are very few things that are as bad for your health as smoking. A regular smoker will increase his/her chances of getting many diseases - even those that people don't necessarily think of as being related to smoking.

You talk about having the occasional cigarette. This is not the problem. If a person really has only 1 cigarette a day, they are certainly not at the same risk as those who smoke 2 packs a day. How many people do you know who actually smoke only occasionally?

[Jose]

I'm really sick and tired of overzealous fanatics telling people what they should and shouldn't do. Read the studies and you will find that secondhand smoke is not harmful. Because the Surgeon General says it is, doesn;t make it so. You will notice the SG has never conducted research nor ever cites research when spouting that off. You antismoking nazis really are not concerned about your health or you all wouldn't be sitting next to smokers in bars, for instance, week after week. What you don't like is the smell and that is not a good reason to allow anyone to ban a legal substance. This is a slippery slop so something you enjoy could be next.

[Smokers force non-smokers to smoke]

I live in an apartment complex, 2nd floor. Our apt complex has outdoor walkways between bldgs where front doors open out to. The people below me, across from me (both upstairs and downstairs), all smoke. We close our windows and doors (even though the air conditioning barely works in the summer when it's 100F+ out because they're always out there. But then they also smoke indoors like right now in the winter, and the smoke comes up through the bathrooms (maybe the sink drains? We still can't figure this out), and comes up into our linen cabinets and closets (really sucks to find your "clean" clothes smelling like an old man's truck). Think the landlords bothered to tell us? It's not required! Think it's so easy to pack up and leave? Sure, if you have the extra $1000 to move plus security deposits, etc.

Luckily my husband has received a long distance transfer for his job and they are moving us. Now that I'm pregnant, I am glad to be able to get out of that stinking old casino.

While smokers can do whatever they want with their own bodies, landlords should also be required to disclose such situations that actually prove to be an environmental hazard so those of us who'd rather not, don't have to put up with it.

[Liz]

Think of all the things you could buy with the money you spend on smokes.

[Ugh.. yeah]

Hey Jose,

I'm really sick and tired of overzealous fanatics telling people what they should and shouldn't do. Read the studies and you will find that secondhand smoke is not harmful. Because the Surgeon General says it is

OH!.. so we should listen to YOU instead of the Surgeon General. Wow, you must be an expert professor at Harvard, huh! Or.. was that some diploma you mailed away for some $10 membership?

Oh, let's see what the government does say...
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/secondhand_smoke/index.htm

And the Mayo Clinic...
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/secondhand-smoke/CC00023

And here's another one you must have missed about RESEARCH ON SECOND HAND SMOKE.

Uh, yeah... maybe you ought to check your facts before you state one out of your cigarette butt.

[Chunkdog]

Given a choice between the Surgeon General and you, Jose, I'll take the SG's opinion on health issues.

[k]

When will it be enough?
No, I do not smoke. No, I never smoked in my life.
But I think it is absurd how we continue to bash smokers.
This is America the land of the free, right?
So let's stop that nonsense.
We non-smokers got what we need, smoke free restaurants and bars.
For some reason some people never get enough.
Now they need smoke free buildings, smoke free beaches, smoke free what-not.
If people want to smoke let them smoke. If it does not affect you it is their business. If they get sick or die earlier, it's their business.
It is called freedom!!!!!!!!

[H.W.]

I've had my father die of emphasema and my brother die of lung cancer. It's not just smokers that are hurt by smoking. It isn't even just those who are exposed to second hand smoke. It's the families and friends who watch their relatives struggle to stop, fail, and die slow, horrible deaths.

[kraffty]

We're all better off if we don't smoke BUT it's legal and banning smokers is already leading to banning fat in foods, banning fast food resturants in cities and banning gay marriage (ok that was a reach) but you get my thinking. I just had my one year anniversary of quitting and still don't think a city should be able to tell me I can or can't smoke in my own yard if I like and it's legal.

[Romana]

I am pregnant and work in San Francisco. I am constantly bombarded by smokers smoke waiting for the bus or walking the streets just to get to work. I do not want to breath in this smoke ESPECIALLY while I am pregnant. It is rude, inconsiderate and stupid to smoke and the smoke travels many feet. It can also travel through heating and air systems in buildings. And yes the butts are all over the place. What is wrong with you smokers that think you can just throw down your cigarette butts on the ground. You think they will magically disappear or something???? Sickening!

[Gabe]

Smoking is really, really stupid. I don't think anyone takes serious the argument that the risks don't outweigh the benefits, in the long run.

However, people do idiotic things all of the time and I don't like the idea punishing people with the law for doing stupid things. Unless, however, the stupid thing causes an immediate and unpleasant or harmful effect on others. This is a basic principle of the law. Therefore, I fully agree smoking laws should be structured to make it so that I don't have to tolerate the immediate and unpleasant or harmful effects of someone else's stupid decision.

If smokers don't like the inconvenience, they should stop. That is how this world works.

[Bronty]

- Worries about smoke outside, with all the cars and trucks going by? Do you realise that the cigarettes nearby emit about 5% of the toxic fumes of just one truck that rolls by?

- Smoking can be a nuisance and should be treated as such. If I lived in an apartment, and my neighbor's smoke was bothersome, I would complain, and I would expect something to be done about it. If it were fried fish instead of smoke smell, I would expect the same treatment.

- I know lots of people who smoke cigars and cigarettes occasionally. Believe it or not, most people who "smoke" do so occasionally, despite what misleading headlines will tell you.

- I feel sorry for you relatives who smoked too much. I know someone who died of liver failure. Alcohol is bad, too.

[kentb]

As a happy smoker I would like to see a more compassionate attitude towards smokers rather that the hateful emotionally charged attitude. I will always try to smoke without impacting others. Peace

[Brogers]

Romana, butts will not disappear until they put ashtrays back inside where they belong.

[the free man]

guys, smoking is something that is killing our air and killing our children. stop