Quit smoking: Begin today
Today is the Great American Smokeout. Under the best of circumstances, if you were a regular smoker yesterday, you almost certainly won’t be an ex-smoker today. But you surely can make an unbreakable commitment to become one.
If you’re a smoker, it’s also almost certain you’ve tried to quit sometime in the past. Most smokers have. Many have become discouraged with efforts, some to the point of throwing up their hands in frustration with themselves and have given in to what they see as the inevitable. Don’t.
The smoking habit can be broken, even these days, when cigarettes contain more addictive nicotine than in days gone by.
Karen Derusha of the Adirondack Tobacco Free Network says smokers in Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties probably make up somewhere between 17 and 24 percent of the population. That’s according to a survey done in June. Based on that survey, it’s difficult to pinpoint the figure any more closely, but roughly one in five adults smokes.
That’s an improvement over years past. According to the insurer Excellus, 20.8 percent of adults in upstate now smoke, down from 25.5 percent in 2003 and 21.4 percent in 2007.
The trend is encouraging. It shows that people are realizing what an unavailing habit they’ve gotten themselves into. It’s the most prevalent form of voluntary fatality we have.
But the health risks alone apparently have not been enough to persuade many people to stop smoking, since the surgeon general’s first announced link between smoking and health hazards in the early 1960s.
Now there are other inducements to quit, besides staying alive and healthy:
• The price of cigarettes has outpaced the ability of many people to pay for them. The excise tax on cigarettes is now $2.75 a pack. The total cost of a pack of cigarettes now ranges between $6.50 and $9, depending on type and brand. Smoking is now practically the sole province of either the wealthy or the inextricably hooked. Smoking a pack a day can cost more than $60 a week. Imagine those poor souls who can’t limit their smoking to a pack a day.
• Many, if not most, municipalities and organizations have restrictions in place on smoking, meaning you almost have to stake out a day’s itinerary to allow yourself an occasional cigarette.
• Governments are passing clean-indoor-air laws to banish smokers to the wide open spaces.
• The overwhelming majority of people now look with such disdain at smoking that it is almost an embarrassment to admit you still smoke. People look down on smoking and resent high costs of health insurance that have been fed by catastrophic ailments incurred by smokers.
Quitting isn’t easy, but it can be done, Derusha insists. The Smokers Quitline, 1-866-NYQUITS (1-866-697-8487), has advice that has proven to work. Cessation counselors can design a program for you personally, based on your own conditions. Anti-nicotine patches, gum and lozenges can get you unhooked.
Today may not be the day you quit. But it can be the day you decide to.
November 18, 2009
