Arkansas Blog: Fewer smokers

The good news is that unpleasant tavern owner who thinks anti-smoking laws don't apply to him is catering to a declining number of customers.

State says that the percentage of the Arkansas population smoking has dropped from 25 to 20 percent.

Full report on the jump, but a digression related to smoking and our earlier hotly debated item about anti-smoking scofflaws.

Most businesses have recognized that it's good business to cater to the vast majority that don't smoke rather than the shrinking number who do. The result is that, where smoking is still allowed, the businesses tend to be slammed by chain smokers who defeat even the most advanced filtration systems in fouling the air. I don't think I'm alone in avoiding places that still allow smoking for just that reason, as good as the burgers are at a couple of them. It's also time to say a word about banning smokes on patios immediately adjacent to entrances. I'm thinking of the guy with the baseball bat-sized stogie planted by the door to Starbucks on Kavanaugh the other day. You could smell him down at the cupcake shop.

Yes, in answer to a comment or two, I'm a reformed smoker. Nothing worse, I know.

NEWS RELEASE

(LITTLE ROCK) — New survey information shows that there are nearly 100,000 fewer smokers in Arkansas since the beginning of the Arkansas Department of Health’s (ADH) Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program in 2002. When the program started in 2002, 25.1% adults smoked in the state; more current data show that those numbers have decreased to approximately 20.7%.

Dr. Paul Halverson, director of the ADH and State Health Officer said, “We are encouraged by these results. Overcoming tobacco addiction is one of the hardest things anyone can do—especially for adults that have been smoking for a long time. We applaud these Arkansans who have beaten addiction and celebrate with them as they lead healthier lives. However, we still have more work to do as we have many Arkansans that would benefit from a tobacco-free lifestyle.”

“This news is also good for Arkansas’s economic health,” Governor Mike Beebe said. “When fewer people smoke, we have healthier employees, healthier families and less demand for health-care services. It all adds up to a healthier workforce, which will help us in our efforts to attract new business and industry to Arkansas.”

The ADH Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program (TPCP) funded through the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, works to reduce tobacco use in Arkansas. Through community and school prevention programs, a media and public relations campaign known as Stamp Out Smoking, and cessation services for tobacco users looking to quit, TPCP continues to see the positive effects of its efforts.

“It’s rewarding to see our hard work pay off with the release of these new numbers,” said Dr. Carolyn Dresler, ADH Director of the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program, “It takes all of our partners working together to achieve these kinds of results, and through youth prevention efforts, quitting services like the Arkansas Tobacco Quitline and policy changes like the tobacco tax, we feel confident tobacco use in Arkansas will continue to decline.”

Arkansas has made significant strides over the past year to provide more services for tobacco users who want to quit, and Arkansans have overwhelmingly responded. Since 2008 the toll-free Arkansas Tobacco Quitline has received more than 22,000 calls. The Quitline, found at 1-800-QUIT-NOW, now offers free motivational coaching with a QuitCoachÔ by phone or online and free medications while supplies last.

Alberta Faye Powell quit smoking on October 20, 2008 with the help of the Quitline. She said that she was successful because of the combination of the nicotine patches, coaching and “having the attitude that you are ready to quit.” She said the coaches provided assistance in a professional manner and assured her that it was okay to be honest if she failed and to start again.

While helping tobacco users quit smoking provides maximum benefits for the state and the individual, it is equally as important to ensure youth never start. Arkansas has been successful in continuing a decline in youth smoking despite national statistics remaining stagnant. In Arkansas, youth smoking has decreased from 34.7 percent in 2001 to 20.7 percent in 2007.

A decline in tobacco use in the state benefits all Arkansans. It means lower health care costs due to smoking-related illness, less exposure to secondhand smoke and longer life expectancy resulting in more time with loved ones. Smoking is a major cause of heart disease, stroke, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Since the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program began in 2002, the number of hospital admissions in Arkansas for heart attack, stroke, chronic bronchitis and emphysema has declined progressively each year resulting in substantial savings in healthcare costs.

For more information on SOS programs or how you can get involved in helping Arkansas become a healthier state, visit stampoutsmoking.com. To quit smoking, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (784-8669).QUIT-NOW (784-8669).

Comments

I, for one, am grateful that big daddy liberals like Max "Volume" Brantley are here to protect me from the evils of smoking. While you are at it, why not make it a crime for me not wear a seatbelt?
Oh wait, never mind.
But back to the topic at hand, teenaged girl smoking outside the abortion clinic while she waits to have a baby sucked out of her, bad. Teenaged girl going to have an abortion, but not smoking, good.
Sweet baby Tebow I don't know which is worst, the former smoker who has quit and now wants everyone to kick the habit or the former fat dude, who lost some weight and won't shut up about it.
I say a prayer to Tebow each night that Max doesn't drop to under two bills.
It would be a nightmare of epic proportions.

Posted by: Crash Davis | July 8, 2009 02:01 PM

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

Posted by: senor square | July 8, 2009 02:05 PM

I am a rabid proponent of eliminating secondhand smoke from public venues, indoor and outdoor, but I don't care if you smoke in your car or in your house. Just keep your secondhand cigarette away from my nostrils and away from my clothes.

Posted by: Pavel | July 8, 2009 02:09 PM

Despite my best efforts, I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to make bitching about people smoking illegal.

Posted by: RickBaber | July 8, 2009 02:12 PM

I didn't ask you to eat where I'm smoking.

Posted by: senor square | July 8, 2009 02:15 PM

Cheers for the guy smoking a cigar outside of Starbucks. Hip Hip Hooray!

Posted by: gloves | July 8, 2009 02:29 PM

I've been an ex-smoker for nigh on 3 years now. The only time I want a cig is when I see those damned stop smoking commercials.

Posted by: 70%er | July 8, 2009 02:37 PM

Hey, if this study and/or report is any indication of what can happen with excessive taxation

then Jerry Cocks and his Council should be calculating the net effects of legalizing cannabis
and then taxing it excessively.

First benefit is more control which is what freedom loving Jerry prefers. Growers can be controlled via expensive permits.

Lower taxes to keep up our prisons and local jails because like distillers and tobacco growers, permit fees will be high and fewer prisoners. RWingers love that.

MoMoney for trauma, and all gubbermint programs that is strictly, single source and user based.

Posted by: eLwood | July 8, 2009 02:40 PM

I had this old lady come sit down beside me at a casino. A casino, of all places. I had been there for an hour or so. She sits down and starts waving her hand over her face and fake coughing and asks me if I'd put out my cigarette. Did I mention that I was there first? Well, over-polite pansy that I am, I put it out anyway.
Truth is, I've felt bad about doing that ever since.
If I knew who that old lady was, and where she lived, I'd invite myself into her house, sneeze, and ask her to kill her cat.

Posted by: RickBaber | July 8, 2009 02:55 PM

That guy with the cigar is putting more bad stuff into the air than my new electric plant does.

Posted by: Louie | July 8, 2009 03:00 PM

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--Zack's has the best burgers in town, but I'll never get one again, because they've decided to cater to the chain-smoker. It's not impossible for an establishment to allow smoking, but to install systems to make it bearable (the Markham Street Grill is a good example).

Posted by: Archaeopteryx | July 8, 2009 03:39 PM

Well here is a thought we could give everyone Chantix and lock everyone in a cell and let them kill each other. Ever read the side-effects on one of those boxes?
RickBaber ever run into old lady again, tell her yes, if she will put a paperbag over her head, her looks offend you.
We all know as smokers it is a nasty habit, but these are the only way the State has to collect taxes. We are all unemployed, we can't afford gasoline, lottery seems a dream, how else without using a gun is Beebe going to make payroll and welfare?

Posted by: Americonio | July 8, 2009 04:03 PM

Amazing how a couple of anti-smoking post show up and The Demoness Nicotianna rears her head and starts spitting fire and belching smoke. She must be mighty powerful to cause normally rational people to act like insufferable children. Anybody ever hear of the Stockholm Syndrome? It seems that many of you are very sympathetic with your captor.

Posted by: pollen | July 8, 2009 04:05 PM

Your children are more annoying than my second hand smoke.

Posted by: the_floyd | July 8, 2009 04:12 PM

Last line of 3rd to last paragraph should be the headline!

In Arkansas in 2001 34% of youth smoked, in 2007 it was 20%!

That is a phenominal turnaround if it is accurate. That will cause a much larger decline in the future, more than hundreds of classes to quit could ever hope to effect.

I lucked out that when I was just starting to smoke tobacco, the US started spraying pot fields in Mexico with paraquat at the same time cigarette went from 50 cents to 75 cents a pack. I could not afford the increase in both cigs and pot on my $1.40 hour after school job. I cut out cigarettes.

I don't know which is harder to free yourself of, a tattoo you got as a teen or a cigarette habit. But I see people equally embarrassed with either.

Posted by: Citizen1 | July 8, 2009 04:42 PM

Thanks for posting this, Max. Arkansans may be slow in recognizing this but luring Carolyn Dresler to Arkansas may well be one of the single most important public health opportunities for the state in memory. Her assumptions that evidence and science dictate public policy has not been easy for either her or the bureaucracy but it will serve to our benefit.

As to the Arkansas' Clean Indoor Air's 3rd birthday:
"Arkansas clean air law may have numerically increased the number of smoke free businesses in what seems a dramatic fashion. But the large exemptions, like the over 21 loophole, probably did not decrease anywhere near as dramatically the amount of secondhand smoke to which people were exposed. And to stretch the argument further those individuals still enduring heavy exposure to SHS, bar patrons and employees, may well also be those at the greatest risk for heart disease; poor health habits, little health care, etc.

Arkansas Clean Indoor Air act needs a tremendous overhaul. This is made most urgent given that we are now discovering the new lottery legislation opens the door for potential gambling parlors. These parlors as well as the racinos will no doubt include restrictions for minors and a carte blanch 'adults only' cachet for the tobacco industry." http://handselart.blogspot.com/

Posted by: Zarathustra | July 8, 2009 05:46 PM

Not long ago, I was walking down Clinton Ave. and saw children seated on the patio at Sticky Fingers. Didn't they go 21+ to allow smoking there?

Zacks has a great burger, but I stopped going after they went all-smoking. The Box has a better burger, and they are non-smoking (which surprised me). Oyster Bar is another establishment that I'm astonished went non-smoking.

Posted by: FromThePines | July 8, 2009 06:20 PM

Champix works in a completely different manner from other treatment drugs that are available for smoking cessation. It works on the pleasure centre of the brain to reduce the satisfaction level that smokers normally get after smoking a cigarette.

Champix can also help to ease off withdrawal symptoms that a smoker experiences after quitting cigarette smoking. Even if you only smoke occasionally, after starting the smoking cessation treatment with Champix, you will find it less enjoyable
More information is available at http://www.onlineclinic.co.uk/champix.html

Posted by: Katie | July 15, 2009 03:19 AM

Arkansas Blog

Fewer smokers

Comments

Post a comment