Smoking Rates High in Lubbock and Amarillo Refions

Tobacco Prevention & Control Regional Coordinator for region 1 with the Texas Department of State Health Services Jennifer Hasty confesses that for several years she was starting a new day with a Winston Blue cigarette and a cup of coffee. She wanted to quit the habit but did not know how to do it. Soon

New York Shows Decline in Smoking Rates

On Monday, state officials said that in New York there was reported lowering of smoking rates. In past four years smoking rates among high school students has reduced by 42% to 7.3%, while the adult smoking rate has reduced to 14.5%, below the national average of 17.8%. State authorities say that smoking rates reduction occured

Oklahoma Sees Significant Decline in Adults Smoking Rates

Oklahoma has seen a significant decrease in the number of adults who smoke cigarettes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

In 2011, 26 percent of Oklahoma adults 18 and older smoked cigarettes. By 2013, that number decreased to about 24 percent. Most popular cigarettes brand is Marlboro Micro http://www.mydiscountcigarette.net/buy/marlboro/micro

Oklahoma health officials celebrated this decline last year, when Oklahoma saw its smoking rate go from about 26 percent to 23 percent. (To be technical, the 2011 rate was 26.1 percent, the 2012 rate was 23.3 percent and the 2013 rate was 23.7 percent).

That said, Oklahoma still has one of the highest adult smoking rates in the U.S.

In 2013, only West Virginia (27.3 percent), Kentucky (26.5 percent), Arkansas (25.9 percent) and Mississippi (24.8 percent) had higher adult smoking rates.

For years, Oklahoma has struggled with high rates of smoking-related diseases, such as COPD, lung cancer, stroke and heart disease.

As the CDC report notes:

Current cigarette smoking ranged from almost 12 percent in Utah to 29 percent in Kentucky in 2011 and from about 10 percent in Utah to about 27 percent in West Virginia in 2013.

During 2011-2013, current cigarette smoking declined significantly in 26 states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming. No significant changes were observed in any other states.

One Billion People on the Globe are Tobacco Users

Latest global survey demonstrates that alcohol and tobacco ramian two major causes of a number of health problems in people around the world. Researchers say that according to obtained data, nearly one billion people (more that 20% of adults) use tobacco regularly while 240 million people (5% adults) are dependent from alcohol. The author of

Senate in Hawaii Passed Bill Raising Smoking Age

Hawaii became first state in the USA to raise legal smoking age to 21. The lawmakers  adopted on Friday a new legislation which increases age for smoking. The law passed in state Senate with the majority of votes: 19 memebers voted for while 4 voted against. The law also regulates use, sale and purchase of

Less Smokers Reported in the USA

New data released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrates that in 2013 in the USA the number of adult smokers achieved a record low level. Today only 17.8% smoke which makes 42.1 million adult Americans. Health experts say that numbers of today are a great progress since 18.1% smoked in 2012 and 20.9%

Smokefree Maori, New Zealand

Winnie Tanginui knows the effects smoking has on an unborn child which is why she quit smoking during both pregnancies. Through Quitline, Me Mutu, Winnie is now represented in the decreasing Māori smoking rates and enjoying her status as a proud Smokefree Māori. Of Waikato, Te Rarawa and Te Aupōuri descent, Winnie says she has tried a million times to quit: “I gave up smoking in 1999 when I got pregnant with my eldest daughter. I lasted through the pregnancy and a few months after.

“I quit in 2009 when I found out that I was pregnant with my wairua taonga. But I kept falling off the waka.

“I signed up with Quitline in July, 2013, bought my last packet of Bond cigarettes in August and became a non-smoker,” Winnie says.

Te Ara Hā Ora, the National Māori Tobacco Control Service and national stop smoking service Quitline, Me Mutu are hearing many success stories just like Winnie’s and they are thrilled to see a significant decrease in Māori smoking rates.

The 2013 Census found that smoking prevalence among Māori had dropped from 42.2% in 2006 to 32.7% in 2013. The recent Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Year 10 smoking surveyshowed that smoking amongst Māori Year 10 is also continuing to show rapid decline. Daily smoking amongst Māori Year 10 has declined to 8.5% in 2013 compared to 26.9% in 2003 and 30.3% in 1999.

“Cessation and public health workers across the country can pat themselves on the back for their determination to support Smokefree whānau and the Smokefree 2025 goal” says Zoe Hawke of Te Ara Hā Ora.

Te Ohu Auahi Mutunga - a stop smoking service in Palmerston North – is also noticing an increase in Māori wanting to stamp out smoking. Quit coach Marilyn McKay’s client says money is a huge motivator for her wanting to quit. “My client has been auahi kore for the past three months and she’s saved $920. She checks her account every day and she feels great.”

Quitline CEO Paula Snowden says every year Quitline, Me Mutu helps about 12,000 Māori to quit smoking. “We know you have a better chance of successfully quitting if you use a support service,” she says. Winnie celebrates over 290 Smokefree days. “I know a journey to a thousand miles begins with one step. I use Quitline’s blogs, texts and phone support. I support 981 bloggers on Quitline’s website too,” she says.

“I am doing this for my seven children and my future. “I am proud to be Smokefree as I am a visionary leader living a healthier and wealthier lifestyle.” Quitline, Me Mutu and Te Ara Hā Ora warn that “we must maintain momentum!”

Both organisations urge action in areas such as the reduction of duty-free allowance on cigarettes and tobacco; Smokefree cars; increased investment in cessation and new nicotine replacement devices; increased taxation; and unbranded packaging.

Smoking Proves Hard to Shake Among the Poor

When smoking first swept the United States in the early decades of the 20th century, it took hold among the well-to-do. Filter cigarettes were high-society symbols of elegance and class, puffed by doctors and movie stars. By the 1960s, smoking had exploded, helped by the distribution of cigarettes to soldiers in World War II. Half of all men and a third of women smoked. But as evidence of smoking’s deadly consequences has accumulated, the broad patterns of use by class have shifted: Smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the country, is now increasingly a habit of the poor and the working class.

While previous data established that pattern, a new analysis of federal smoking data released on Monday shows that the disparity is increasing. The national smoking rate has declined steadily, but there is a deep geographic divide. In the affluent suburbs of Washington, only about one in 10 people smoke, according to the analysis, by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. But in impoverished places like this — Clay County, in eastern Kentucky — nearly four in 10 do.

“It’s just what we do here,” said Ed Smith Jr., 51, holding up his cigarette in a hand callused from his job clearing trees away from power lines. Several of his friends have died of lung cancer, and he has tried to quit, but so far has not succeeded.

“I want to see my grandson grow up,” he said.

The new study, which evaluated federal survey data from 1996 to 2012 to produce smoking rates by county, offered a rare glimpse beneath the surface of state-level data. It found that affluent counties across the nation have experienced the biggest, and fastest, declines in smoking rates, while progress in the poorest ones has stagnated. The findings are particularly stark for women: About half of all high-income counties showed significant declines in the smoking rate for women, but only 4 percent of poor counties did, the analysis found.

This growing gap in smoking rates between rich and poor is helping drive inequality in health outcomes, experts say, with, for example, white women on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder now living shorter lives.“Smoking is leaving these fancy places, these big urban areas,” said Ali H. Mokdad, a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and an author of the study. “But it has remained in these poor and rural areas. They are getting left behind.”

Americans with a high school education or less make up 40 percent of the population, but they account for 55 percent of the nation’s 42 million smokers, according to a New York Times analysis of health survey data obtained from the Minnesota Population Center, at the University of Minnesota. Since 1997, the smoking rate for adults has fallen 27 percent, but among the poor it has declined just 15 percent, according to the analysis. And among adults living in deep poverty in the South and Midwest, the smoking rate has not changed at all.