GRASSROOTS
NEWSLETTER
March-April
2007
Volume 5 Number 5
Welcome to our
many new readers.
Thank you to our
long-term members, for your commitment to preventing tobacco use and exposure
in
Tobacco use is the single greatest health risk a person
can endure. Effective cessation is a comprehensive
undertaking using all the tools available wisely. Including cessation treatment as part of an
employee benefit plan is one way to assure cogent and evidence based practices
to help people quit.
Call to action: If
your workplace still doesn’t offer support to help smokers and spitters quit tobacco, now’s the time to remind employers that
smoking is costly both in terms of
smoking-related medical expenses and lost productivity. Smoking related disease
costs Arkansans $812 million in health care costs and $1.30 billion in lost
productivity annually. There is a certain irony in an insurance package that
will pay for a lung cancer victim’s chemotherapy but not the medicine to help
them quit smoking or to cover the cost of bypass surgery but not offer a smoker
the chance to see a cessation counselor.
More than 70% of smokers want to quit but few will succeed without help. The average number of
quit attempts a smoker may try before succeeding is 7. It helps to understand
something about just how potently addictive nicotine is. 1 in 10 people who try alcohol become alcoholics;
1 in 6 who try cocaine and heroin become addicts; but 1 in 2 who try nicotine
will become addicted and that rate rises up to an alarming 9 out of 10 if
tobacco initiation is before adolescence.
Nicotine withdrawal symptoms peak every 20 minutes leaving the addict
irritable, distracted, and more prone to accidents. In fact, smokers have twice as many on the
job accidents and are absent from work 50% more often. You will get more return
on your dollar for cessation treatment than hypertension meds, cholesterol meds,
diabetes meds, or even angioplasty.
Why? Because tobacco use can
cause or complicate all of the maladies that will require these much more
expensive treatments down the line.
***
Arkansas’ General
Assembly recessed this month after dealing with 11 bills regarding tobacco
with the usual bright and dark spots.
Appropriations for the Tobacco, Prevention and Cessation Programs were
approved but for over $2 million less than last year, dropping Arkansas’
ranking by the CDC on correct spending of Master Settlement Agreement monies to
6th of all states. The MSA
continues to be a tremendous victory for the tobacco industry. After less than a decade, only 8% of the
billions the states settled for is spent on tobacco control.
While
One of the
disappointments of this session was the failure of the Rules Committee to advance
Representative Gene Shelby’s bill to increase tobacco taxes 50 cents to fund,
among many things, community health centers.
Advocates will remember that increasing the cost of tobacco 10%
typically results with a decline in tobacco use of 7% among youth and 4%
overall.
This session saw
more political maneuverings by pro tobacco forces with HB1275. Originally sponsored by Representative Kevin
Anderson to negatively amend the protections from secondhand smoke on hospital
campuses, the bill was amended after the deadline to submit legislation to
change the sponsors, the title, and the content. After adding Representative Maxwell as a
sponsor, HB1275 attempted to legalize exposure to secondhand smoke for minors
if they work as entertainers. This ‘Younger Strippers’ amendment would have made it legal for
persons younger than 18 to work in a smoking bar or restaurant with a note from
a parent or guardian. Advocates
will recognize the exemptions to the Arkansas Clean Indoor Air Act as being a
major flaw in this landmark legislation.
We do not lose our right to breathe at age 21 nor should anyone endure
the risk of cancer and heart disease as a condition of employment.
Bright spots from
the legislature came with the passage of Act 165 eliminating all self service
cigarette displays. While advocates would prefer to put all tobacco behind
the counter, this is a good first step.
Another positive move by the legislature was the passage of Senator
Percy Malone’s Act 703 expanding protections for children from abuse and
neglect. Section 6 of this legislation
restricts placing foster children in a smoking environment. Though not strong
smoke free legislation, it distinguishes
***
Congratulations
and recognition are due TFMC friend and special
consultant Dr. Karl Heinz Ginzel for the publication
of his article, “Nicotine for the Fetus, for the Infant and the Adolescent?” in the March issue of the Journal of Psychology and Health. Dr. Ginzel writes:
“The recent expansion of Nicotine Replacement Therapy to
pregnant women and children (in Britain) ignores the fact that nicotine
impairs, disrupts, duplicates and/or interacts with essential physiological
functions and is involved in tobacco-related carcinogenesis. The main concerns
in the present context are its fetotoxicity and neuroteratogenicity that can cause cognitive, affective and
behavioral disorders in children born to mothers exposed to nicotine during
pregnancy, and the detrimental effects of nicotine.”
This article has already become the Journal’s 2nd most read
article online and is encouraged reading for anyone interested in recognizing
nicotine’s role as much more dangerous than a benign addictive substance in
tobacco. While the abstract is free at: http://hpq.sagepub.com/content/vol12/issue2/
, the complete article requires a subscription. Serious interest can be
accommodated by contacting our office, tfmc@marioncounty.com or 870-427-2620.
***
Exposure to tobacco during pregnancy and
childhood is a serious health problem.
We will be making a presentation at the Health Unit this spring during
the baby shower sponsored by the Marion County Extension Homemakers. Babies born to smoking mothers can have
nicotine in their first urine. They are
much more likely to be born prematurely and with a low birth weight. Many suffer colic and much of their fussiness
will be nicotine withdrawal. Can you think of a better gift to give a baby than
a tobacco free start?
1-866-NOW-QUIT is
a telephone, mail, or e-mail-based tobacco cessation program. The trained counselors from the UAMS College
of Public Health will work with all smokers, spit tobacco users, youth aged
12-17 and adults, pregnant women, and people who want to help someone
else. The call and service are free and
using it doubles the chance for quitting and staying quit. Pass it on!