Fact or Fiction

According to Bacchus and Gamma, smoking just 4 cigarettes can give a person a 90% chance of becoming addicted. Young adults, ages 18-24, are among the most targeted groups when it comes to tobacco use. An estimated 1 out of 9 college student's will die of a tobacco-related illness according to The Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium.

In 2007, nearly two-thirds (60.9%) of students who ever smoked cigarettes daily tried to quit smoking cigarettes; however, among those who tried to quit, only 12.2% were successful. While the prevalence of success in quitting did not vary by sex or race/ethnicity, more students in 9th grade (22.9%) than in 10th grade (10.7%), 11th grade (8.8%) and 12th grade (10.0%) were successful at quitting. 31% of college students use tobacco and half of them would like to quit.

Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW from 8 am to 3 am, 7 days-a-week to talk to a trained Quit Coach and receive immediate help. The Quit Coach will assess your level of addiction and propose a plan that is tailored to you. It's that simple.

The Indiana Tobacco Quitline will help you break your dependency on tobacco products, and it's FREE! They will answer any questions and show you the best way to quit.

You can also visit: TobaccoFreeU.org for more info and help.

In 2004, Indiana spent $2,180,000,000 in health care costs attributable to smoking.

• Gives you more energy and helps you breathe easier
• Save money to buy more things for your baby - and yourself
• Lets you feel good about what you've done for yourself and your baby
• Facts about Quitting During Pregnancy:
  • Many pregnant women are tempted to cut down the number of cigarettes they smoke instead of quitting. Cutting down to less than 5 cigarettes a day can reduce risk, but quitting is the best thing you can do for you and your baby.
  • It's never too late to quit smoking during your pregnancy. After just one day of not smoking, your baby will get more oxygen. Each day that you don't smoke, you are helping your baby grow.
• During the first few weeks after quitting, cravings and withdrawal symptoms may be strongest. You can reduce the length of each craving for a cigarette by distracting yourself (keep your hands, mouth, and mind busy).
• Withdrawal symptoms are often signs that your body is healing. They are normal, temporary, and will lessen in a couple of weeks.
• Weight gain during pregnancy is normal. If you are worried about gaining weight when you quit smoking, now is an ideal time to quit. The weight you gain is far less harmful than the risk you take by smoking.

Click to go to the Indiana Perinatal Website.

• Increases the amount of oxygen your baby will get
• Increases the chances your baby's lungs will work well
• Lowers the risk that your baby will be born too early
• Increases your chances of having a normal-weight, healthy baby
• Increases the chances your baby will come home from the hospital with you

When you are pregnant, the things you do affect your unborn child. Smoking - or even being around other people who smoke - exposes your baby to harmful chemicals that can have a lifelong impact. No matter how far along you are in your pregnancy, your baby will be healthier if you quit.

Employees who breathe smoke from their co-workers' cigarettes miss twice as many days of work as employees in smoke-free offices. Irritants in secondhand smoke increased chest colds, eye irritation and respiratory illnesses in nonsmokers. Workers exposed to secondhand smoke are 34% more likely to get lung cancer!

Secondhand smoke exposure is associated with increased respiratory irritation (cough, phlegm production and wheezing) and middle ear infections as well as upper respiratory tract symptoms (sore throats and colds) in infants and children. Secondhand smoke exposure caused by parental smoking contributes to 150,000 to 300,000 cases annually of lower respiratory tract infection in infants and children under 18 months of age; 7,500 to 15,000 of these cases require hospitalization.

Six Conclusions from the Surgeon General 2006 - The Surgeon General Issues 6 conclusions about involuntary (second-hand) smoke and it's effects (2006).

Secondhand smoke affects everyone exposed to it. Evidence continues to accumulate saying that exposure to secondhand smoke increases non-smokers risk of lung cancer and heart disease. In children, exposure to secondhand smoke is associated with respiratory problems including asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and low birth weight.

Even cracking the window will not prevent those riding with you from being exposed to the dangerous hazards of secondhand smoke.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) adopted a position document that states: "At present, the only means of effectively eliminating health risks associated with indoor exposure is to ban smoking activity. No other engineering approaches, including current and advanced dilution ventilation or air cleaning technologies, have demonstrated or should be relied upon to control health risks from ETS [environmental tobacco smoke] exposure in spaces where smoking occurs Because of ASHRAE's mission to act for the benefit of the public, it encourages elimination of smoking in the indoor environment as the optimal way to minimize ETS exposure."

Smokeless tobacco is a deadly killer in its own right.

Spit tobacco (a.k.a. smokeless tobacco, dip, snuff, chew, and chewing tobacco) contains ingredients that can cause serious health problems. Users can suffer from periodontal (gum) disease, cavities (tooth decay), leukoplakia (white patches and oral lesions which can lead to oral cancer), and are at greater risk for oral, throat, stomach and pancreatic cancer.

The nicotine content in a can of dip or snuff is approximately 144 milligrams, which is equal to about 80 cigarettes. In other words, one can of snuff or dip equals about four packs of cigarettes. Nicotine addiction is a serious physiological health issue that drives users to continue using, despite considerable risks (such as cancer), and makes spit tobacco a very difficult habit to quit.

Quitting the use of tobacco (nicotine) can be harder than quitting use of heroin or cocaine. With regular use of chew or spit, levels of nicotine accumulate in the body and you are exposed to the effects of nicotine 24 hours-a-day. Did you know that most snuff tobacco contains the highest levels of nicotine of all spit tobacco? Most spit tobacco has higher nicotine levels per package than cigarettes. One can of Copenhagen contains as much nicotine as three packs of cigarettes. The nicotine in spit tobacco is easily absorbed through the tissues of the mouth.

(1 can Skoal = 4 packs of cigarettes)

• MyLastDip.com
• ChewFree.com
• National Spit Tobacco Education Program - nstep.org
• ThroughWithChew.com
• QuitSmokeless.org
• KillTheCan.org

The dissolvable products - a pellet (Camel Orbs), a twisted stick the size of a toothpick (Camel Sticks), and a film strip for the tongue (Camel Strips), are made from finely ground flavored tobacco. The products melt in the mouth within three to thirty minutes. RJR said the Strips melt the fastest, the toothpick-like Sticks dissolve in about ten minutes, and the pellet-size Orbs last the longest.

The nicotine delivery of the products is said to be high: whereas a cigarette smoker typically takes in about 1 milligram of nicotine, the Camel Dissolvables are said to deliver about 0.6 to 3.1 mg of nicotine each.

R.J. Reynolds released Camel Orbs in the Selected Cities: at Super Speedway in Columbus, OH and Indianapolis, IN and the Plaid Pantry in Portland, OR.

These products are another reason why state officials should continue to fund stop-smoking programs instead of diverting the money elsewhere as the health risks of the products are not known.

Did you know that most snuff tobacco contains the highest levels of nicotine of all spit tobacco? The nicotine content in a can of dip or snuff is approximately 144 milligrams, which is equal to about 80 cigarettes.

Most spit tobacco has higher nicotine levels per package than cigarettes. One can of Copenhagen contains as much nicotine as 3 packs of cigarettes.

Nicotine addiction is a serious physiological health issue that drives users to continue using, despite considerable risks (such as cancer), and makes spit tobacco a very difficult habit to quit.

Smokeless tobacco actually is a stimulant and causes depression upon withdrawal.

Actually, once someone who chews becomes addicted to nicotine, they frequently will begin smoking since it has fewer social restrictions.

Hundreds of poisons and many carcinogens are in smokeless tobacco.

The same addictive nicotine that is in cigarettes is the same addictive nicotine that is in smokeless tobacco. If you chew, you are playing with a chemical that is just as addictive as cocaine or heroin!

Mar 5, 2009

A report from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration suggests that between 2002 and 2007, smokeless tobacco use among adolescent boys increased 30 percent, Reuters reports.

Based on data collected by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, use of smokeless tobacco among boys ages 12 to 17 increased from 3.4 percent in 2002 to 4.4 percent in 2007, representing 566,000 new users.

Smokeless tobacco use was most common among adolescent boys living in rural areas of the country and among American Indians and Alaska Natives. The data also reveals that 85.8 percent of adolescents who had used smokeless tobacco products in the past month had also used cigarettes at some point in their lives, with 38.8 percent reporting cigarette use during the past month.

The researchers note that the spike in smokeless tobacco use correlates with an uptick in spending and marketing of new products by smokeless tobacco companies. Anti-tobacco advocates say the findings lend further support to a measure being debated in the U.S. legislature that would grant the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products.

(Dunham, Reuters, 3/5/09; U.S Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration release, 3/5/09; National Survey on Drug Use and Health report, 3/5/09).

National Survey on Drug Use and Health Report

On the contrary. Often overlooked is the effect that smoking bans have on the smoking habits of employees. In a confidential memo in 1993, a Philip Morris executive wrote: "The second major threat we face is from smoking bans. If smokers can't smoke on the way to work, at work, in stores, banks, restaurants, malls and other public places, they are going to smoke less. Overall cigarette purchases will be reduced and volume decline will accelerate".

He was correct. Several studies have examined worker behavior. A meta-analysis of these studies demonstrates that 4% of employees will quit outright and most others will reduce their total cigarette usage. The result is a 29% decrease in cigarettes smoked.

Because the dangerous effects of smoking are clearly dose related, this can only in reality mean significant health benefits for employees and substantial economic benefits to their employers.

The number of communities and restaurants that have gone smoke-free are growing. Instead of losing revenue, since enacting smoke-free business policies, many restaurants have increased their business. In addition to clean air, restaurant owners report fewer burns in seats and cushions and no smoke damage to walls and curtains making for an overall cleaner facility.

When all restaurants in the state went smoke free in 1995. Taxable receipts were unaffected.

In 1998 all California bars also went smoke free. The legislature was assailed by the hospitality industry with claims of dire financial losses. But when the legislature commissioned a study by tax officials, there were no losses in any sectors from the smallest neighborhood bar to the largest restaurant chains.

Raising the price of tobacco products is the number one way to prevent our youth from using tobacco.

For every 10% percent increase in the price of cigarettes, it reduces youth smoking by about 7 percent and overall consumption by 4 percent.

The ROI Calculator. This is for health insurance plans and employers tool uses your data and default information to estimate the return on investment to coverage, promotion, and encouragement of smoking cessation. Depending on the amount of data you provide, results can be calculated in 212 minutes.

The ROI Calculator uses information about your population to estimate service delivery costs and future financial savings of the following interventions:

• A "5A's" program (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange)
• A "5A's" program with medication
• A "5A's" program with telephone counseling
• A "5A's" program with medication and telephone counseling

The model estimates the number of participants, new quitters, and program costs for a one-year program provided to smokers by the health insurance plan. ROI per participant and per member per month are estimated by comparing annual costs for each intervention with usual care. Productivity savings per participant provide employers, benefit managers, and payors with important insights into the work-place benefits of clinical smoking cessation.

Go to the ROI Calculator page

Tobacco related statistics for Indiana residents are alarming:

• Smoking caused health costs: $2.08 billion
• Smoking caused productivity losses: $2.49 billion
• 16,500 smoking affected births each year
• State government Medicaid costs: $182 million
• Federal government Medicaid costs: $304.9 million
• Taxpayer's federal/state tax burden from smoking: $1.4 billion

Non-smokers harmed by secondhand smoke at work have won lawsuits and disability claims against their employers under a variety of legal remedies. The American Productivity Audit, a national survey of over 29,000 workers, found that tobacco use was a leading cause of worker lost production time, greater than alcohol abuse or family emergencies. Smoking impacts your workers' productivity.

One large company found that their employees who smoked had more hospital admissions (124 vs. 76 admissions per 1,000 workers) and a higher average insured payment for health care ($1,145 vs. $762) than their non-smoking employees in an eleven-month period.

Think of a lit cigarette as a miniature toxic waste dump. Secondhand smoke contains more than 50 cancer-causing chemicals. The toxins in secondhand smoke can cause heart disease and lung cancer in non-smokers. Breathing secondhand smoke for even a short time could have immediate effects on your blood and blood vessels, aggravating existing heath conditions in non-smokers.