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You’ve seen them: the huddled masses standing outside office doorways, in parking lots, on train platforms, cigarettes in hand, taking that last puff before going into one of the growing number of no-smoking zones in America. But dedicated smokers don’t just brave the elements; increasingly, they also have to face the scornful looks of passers-by. It’s no wonder they’re starting to feel like social pariahs. But it turns out that those disdainful glares may be motivating some smokers to quit
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
HARRISBURG — In his 27 years working in Atlantic City casinos, Vinnie Rennich developed lung cancer and a passion for protecting casino workers from the dangers of second-hand smoke, which was everywhere.
His cancer now seems to be arrested, but he had to have part of one lung removed, he told a House-Senate conference committee yesterday that is working on legislation to ban smoking in most public places in Pennsylvania.
He also got fired by his casino after he filed a lawsuit last year alleging negligence toward workers and testified at the New Jersey capital of Trenton that 100 percent of a casino floor should be smoke-free.
Currently, 25 percent of a New Jersey casino floor may allow cigarette smoking, he said yesterday, but the smoke often drifts across onto the nonsmoking section, so the limit of 25 percent isn’t effective.
“Every worker,” in clubs, bars, restaurants, taverns and casinos, “has the right to be protected from second-hand smoke,” he said.
While casinos often say they will lose business if smoking is banned completely — because gamblers will find a casino in another state to gamble in — Mr. Rennich contended that smoke-free legislation “is not an economic issue. It’s a health issue.”
He testified at the first of two hearings being held this week by Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, one of the six House-Senate conferees trying to write a smoke-free bill that can win approval from both the House and the Senate.
After a second hearing is held on Thursday, the committee will meet privately for two weeks and then, Mr. Greenleaf hopes, adopt its version of a smoking ban bill on March 31.
He’s hoping for approval of Senate Bill 246 by the full Senate and House by the end of April, but other legislators, looking at the complexity and controversial nature of the issue, think it will take longer.
“As scientific evidence continues to demonstrate the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, and the public grows increasingly supportive, each year we see additional cities, states and nations move to limit smoking in public places,” he said.
State Health Secretary Calvin B. Johnson said 22 states have enacted smoke-free laws, including many bordering Pennsylvania, such as New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. He said there are numerous studies linking secondhand smoke with illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.
Three major issues remain before a compromise bill can be reached, however:
• Should all public places be declared smoke-free, or should some smaller taverns, private clubs and casinos at least be allowed to have smoking sections?
• Will the Legislature allow towns and counties to enact their own tougher smoking bans, even after Senate Bill 246 becomes law, or will the state pre-empt localities from having their own bans? Currently, only the state can enact legislation, which is why Allegheny County’s ban got knocked out last year. Philadelphia is the only city by law now allowed to have its own smoking ban, and it does.
• Who will enforce the ban — counties, towns or the state? Only a few larger counties have health departments, said Lebanon County Commissioner Larry Stohler, and there will be an added cost for counties to crack down on bars that continue to allow smoking, if all smoking is banned.
If city or county health departments enforce the ban, they should be allowed to keep all the fines they impose, he argued.
If county health departments don’t enforce a ban, then some state agency, perhaps the Department of Health, should do it.
Even if a ban is enacted, it may not take effect for 180 days to give authorities time to decide who will enforce it.
1-800-Quit-Now is a national router number which accepts callers from throughout the nation, seamlessly directing them to the appropriate state quitline. In an effort to promote this valuable resource, the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center has developed a small, plastic card the size of a credit card to help promote the new national quitline, 1-800-Quit-Now. If there is no state-run quitline, the call goes to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) quitline. By the end of the year, every state will be able to offer smokers this valuable service.Quitlines are toll-free telephone centers staffed by trained smoking cessation experts. For clinicians, they can provide an easy, fast, and effective way to help smokers quit. By simply identifying smokers, advising them to quit, and sending them to a free telephone service, clinicians can save thousands of lives.In an effort to try and help people stop smoking regardless of the mechanism, Smoke Away applauds the efforts mentioned above. We also urge people to take part in either this free service, or if they need to, they can certainly log onto Smoke Away Support and talk to actual people who are currently in the midst of their “quit”, or better yet have been successful and are now helping others!
CHICAGO, — Motives for quitting smoking — and barriers to it — vary according to age, researchers have said.If they are motivated, patients older than 65 can stop smoking as easily as younger patients — and they are more likely to stay off tobacco, according to Virginia Reichert, a nurse practitioner at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, N.Y.
That was one of the big differences between age groups she and colleagues found when they analyzed records of 2,052 patients who went through an intensive six-week stop-smoking program at her institution last year.
“There’s a common misperception that if a person hasn’t quit by now, they aren’t going to,” she said, “and that isn’t true.”
At 30 days after the end of the program, the quit rate was virtually identical, at about 58%, Reichert said at the meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians.
But after a year of follow-up, 52% of the 143 participants older than 65 remained off cigarettes, compared with 35% of those younger, Reichert said.
The finding, she said, makes sense. “As you get older you’re able to fight your addictions a little bit better.” The message for clinicians, she said, is that it’s never too late for a patient to quit smoking.The investigators also found:
- Among the younger group, 29% saw possible weight gain as a barrier to stopping, compared with 15% of the over-65s.
- 81% of the younger smokers wanted to quit because of general health concerns, compared with 68% of the older cohort.
- Only 19% of the younger smokers were quitting because of pressure from their doctors, compared with 32% of the older group. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in the proportions who gave pressure from family or friends as a reason to quit.
- More younger smokers cited the expense of cigarettes, at 37% versus 22%
A major obstacle to successful quitting was the presence of another smoker at home, but that was significantly greater in the younger cohort (18% versus 9% ).
Again, that makes sense, Reichert said: “Many older people live alone.”
The study has a “tremendous amount of material,” commented Frank Leone, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia, who moderated a press conference at which Reichert spoke.
Dr. Leone, who was not part of the study, said one implication of the findings is that smoking-cessation programs should take into account differing barriers and motivations.
The data are “another step toward individualizing, more finely tailoring the kinds of interventions used,” he said.
The bottom line here is that it is never too late to try to quit. The ramifications of quitting can be seen almost immediately. For more information about people who can help you with your quit, go to the Smoke Away Support Group and or you can find out more about Smoke Away here. You can find the full article here.
