Kicking the Smoking Habit in Massachusetts

Tire technician Vernon Grant first started smoking at age 12 in his native South Africa, under the influence of friends. (photo: Eduardo A. de Oliveira, EthnicNEWz.org)

For two reasons, South African smoker Vernon Grant is not among the thousands of success stories that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) praised as part of its anti-tobacco campaign, at a ceremony last week at the State House.

Grant is no longer a resident of Massachusetts - he recently moved from Lynn to Nashua, NH.

And he hasn't quit smoking - yet.

The tire technician puffed his first cigarette at age 12. With a beer in hand, he was mingling with schoolmates in Durban, the largest city of South African province KwaZulu-Natal.

Grant, now 30, is not part of the 7.9 percent drop in the number of smokers in Massachusetts, from 2006 to 2007, according to the Massachusetts Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

He says his two attempts to quit failed due to "an uncontrollable craving for nicotine" that he felt about one week after he stopped smoking.

But MDPH employee Joanne Lynn quit a 35-year-old smoking habit when she decided to place a nicotine replacement patch on her arm. She is among more than 7,000 Massachusetts smokers who have called the state's Quitline (1-800-879-8678) to take advantage of a nicotine patch giveaway, sponsored by her own employer.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Massachusetts now has one of the lowest, adult smoking rates in the country. The state's 2007 adult smoking rate of 16.4 percent ranks Massachusetts #4 - behind California, Utah and Connecticut - as the state with the lowest rate of smokers.

"This is great news for Massachusetts," said Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, the state's Secretary of Health and Human Services, during the ceremony.

"The decline in smoking shows that our investment in tobacco control and prevention activities is paying dividends, and that will make for healthier communities and a healthier Commonwealth," Bigby said.

One major reason that may have encouraged Massachusetts residents to stop smoking in the past month is the $1 price increase on a pack of cigarettes, as of July 1, 2008. The price hike might have prompted the 20-fold increase in number of calls that the MDPH Quitline received in the same period.

A pack of cigarettes in Massachusetts now costs roughly $6.25 per pack, which contains 20 cigarettes.

For MDPH Commissioner John Auerbach, the anti-smoking campaign represents a win-win situation. He sees no inconsistency in the fact that the smokers who will bring new revenue to the state - an estimated $150 million from the price increase for cigarettes - are the same persons who may later quit the habit altogether.

"It's true, if fewer people smoke, there will be less tax money. But it will be offset by a dramatic decrease in the utilization of health care by those who would develop respiratory illnesses, heart disease or cancer," Auerbach told EthnicNEWz.org.

"We'll make money on people [who] stop smoking [while also] encouraging them to live healthier lives," the commissioner said.

Auerbach also said that Massachusetts spends $4 billion a year in medical expenses to treat tobacco-related illnesses.

"If keeping people healthy is good for the economy, we want to do that," he said.

Every year 9,000 people in Massachusetts die of tobacco-related illnesses, according to MDPH data.

Still, states can do little to curb advertising strategies applied by the tobacco industry to lure youth smokers.

Restrictions on advertising are handled only by the federal government.

In addition, some of the tobacco companies give away free items, such as nicotine products and jackets targeted at youth, said Auerbach.

Russet Morrow Breslau, executive director of Tobacco Free Mass Coalition, a Framingham-based nonprofit that advocates for tobacco-control policies, sees the need to keep the state's current progress undeterred.

"If we ease up restrictions on tobacco, we are going to see the numbers of smokers back up again. The dollar increase in [a cigarette pack's] price represents 46,000 fewer kids ever touching a cigarette, and 26,000 adults being encouraged to quit smoking," she said.

The MDPH ceremony at the State House also showed that persons' income and education levels are tied to diverse relationships with smoking.

Of persons who earn less than $25,000 a year, 27.8 percent smoke. Of those with a high school diploma or less education, 26.4 percent smoke.

Smoking rates go down for those with more income or education: 11.5 percent of household-income earners of $75,000 smoke, and 8.4 percent of college graduates hold the same habit.

Vernon Grant, who smokes about a pack a day, credits his lack of "willpower" for not quitting.

"Sometimes when I climb [up] the stairs or lift weights, I breathe [more heavily] and harder," he says.

Grant admits that the influence of his friends back in Durban influenced his habit that continues today.

Here in the US, half of his closest buddies are smokers. But he is willing to try, once again, to get rid of a habit that costs him $45 a week, or $2,340 a year.

For a free two-week supply of the nicotine replacement patch, call the MDPH Quitline at 1-800-Try-To-STOP (1-800-879-8678). The hours for the Quitline are Monday through Friday, 9 AM - 9 PM, and Saturday and Sunday, 10 AM - 6 PM. Help is available in both English and Spanish.

Additional resources to quit smoking can be found at makesmokinghistory.org.

source: EthnicNEWz.org

Copyright 2008 New England Ethnic News, EthnicNEWz.org. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express permission of the news source. Contact NEWz for more information.

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SMOKERS AND EX-SMOKERS: WHAT'S YOUR EXPERIENCE IN KICKING THE HABIT?
DID YOU GET HELP FROM YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER? OR EMPLOYER? OR TRY THE PATCH?

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