Got kids? Get healthy... NY survey reveals smokers with kids are more likely to quit

We've all heard the popular messages about quitting smoking. "It's good for your health." "You'll breathe easier." "Non-smokers live longer." So why are over 20% of American adults still smoking?

Perhaps they just don't have the right incentive- kids.

Yes, that's right. According to a New York state Department of Health survey, kids are a good incentive for adult smokers to quit. In fact, smokers living with kids are 76% more likely to try to quit smoking, 42% of smokers with children don't allow smoking in their home, and 60% of smokers living with children want to quit smoking "a lot."

So what is it about living with kids that's making smokers want to toss out their favorite brands?

Dr. Richard Daines, New York state's health commissioner, suggests that the health risks to others can be a greater incentive for smokers to quit than the dangers it poses to themselves.
"People who won't quit smoking for themselves are generally more likely to quit smoking for their children,'' said Daines.

In other words, I may be okay with hurting myself, but I'm less inclined to want to hurt my kid.

Parents who smoke around their kids increase their risk for asthma episodes, colds, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

By putting down the pack, parents may decrease their kid's number of schools sick days and doctor visits, and also increase their own chance to live a healthy, breathe-easy life.

And for those of us without kids?

Perhaps we can just focus on that fact that smoking harms the people around us. And maybe that will provide another motivation to quit.

Article from 1010wins

N-O-T Your Traditional Support Group: Empowering Teens to Reclaim Their Youth

In recent years, efforts to prevent teen smoking have had little effect. While ads by the Truth and Above the Influence campaigns are creatively targeting youth by appealing to teenagers’ desires for independence and rebellion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has indicated that the smoking rates among high school students has remained constant over the past five years.

While it is estimated that 20% of high school students regularly smoke cigarettes, the failure of antismoking campaigns is frustrating to those in the medical field. Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, notes “When I see a young kid smoking, it's just so frustrating because I actually know the power of tobacco to cause disease." Dr. Brawley also acknowledges how difficult it is for teens to quit smoking, even if they want to.

Peer pressure is only one of the stumbling blocks which teens must endure when attempting to quit smoking. Often teens do not know how to seek help from health care providers without their parents’ knowledge.

What is most frustrating is that while researchers and health care providers have an arsenal of means to help adults to quit smoking, the same resources are not available for teens. Currently the FDA does not approve of the use of nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, or other smoking cessation products for those under the age of 18.

There is one option which teenagers do have: Support groups.

Cassie Graham, a high school senior from Farifax County, Virginia, says it’s worth a try. While she started smoking at the age of 15, Cassie notes the difficulties that she is facing with her addiction, "It's getting pretty bad. It used to be fun and now I have to smoke. I know that it's not normal to smoke all the time, and I have to find some way to quit."

Fortunately, Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax County provides Cassie and other smokers with a tool in quitting smoking. During her free periods, Cassie is able to partake in a 10-week smoking-cessation class.

Cassie admits, "I'm not of legal age to smoke. So I was kind of skeptical at first, like 'Am I going to get in trouble for going to this class?”

Samuel Wagner, a substance abuse counselor at the school, cites Cassie’s concern as being common among participants in the program. The aim of the school’s Not-on-Tobacco (N-O-T) program is to provide the teens with support, and not cause them to feel like they are going to be reprimanded or disciplined for engaging in the habit.

Created by the American Lung Association over 10 years ago, the N-O-T program has been helping kids ages 14-19 who wish to quit smoking. At Robinson Secondary School the program has helped 37% of the enrollees to quit, and 60% to reduce their use of cigarettes.

On “Quit Day” the teens of Fairfax County cited many reasons for wishing to kick the habit. Most admitted to concerns over the costly nature of the habit, but more profound was the concern of the health effects of smoking.

One participant, Lia Pisa-Relli, worries about developing breathing problems. Having started smoking five years ago at the age of 12, she admitted to already seeing the health effects at the young age of 17, "I want to be able to run. I can't even run up the stairs. I can't even walk up two flights of stairs. It's pretty bad."

Like most of the group Lia does not wish to be a part of the statistics. Nearly half of all adults in the United States who suffer from emphysema and 40 percent with chronic bronchitis are smokers. Lia wants to prevent her health from getting worse.

Counselors of the N-O-T program want to help the teens with this not so simple task. While discussion of nicotine withdrawal symptoms is helpful, the most effective part of the program is the support that the teenagers give each other.

Teens like Cassie know the road ahead will not be simple, but by having the opportunity to quit smoking with the support of peers, the task at hand isn’t so daunting.

For more information on the American Lung Association's N-O-T Program, click here.

(Source - CNN 11/17)

Flu Vaccination Mapping

Boston rolls out flu shot monitoring program

On Friday, November 21, 2008, Boston residents participated in an innovative flu vaccination experiment. Residents received a flu vaccine and got a bracelet printed with a unique identifier code. Information about the vaccine's recipients and the shot were entered into a database and the information will be used to create a vaccination map for the city. The event was free of charge and took place at the Boston Public Health Commission, which is located at 1010 Massachusetts Avenue.

Boston is leading the way in a novel experiment that will use technology developed for mass disasters to create a flu vaccination map of the city’s neighborhoods. The database will consist of a citywide registry of everyone who has had the flu vaccine. In the case of a global flu epidemic, infectious disease specialists will be able to intervene in vulnerable neighborhoods where residents have not been vaccinated.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota, said, "Anything you can do to better pinpoint who's vaccinated and who's not, that's absolutely vital."

The new tracking system will also be used to develop outreach programs in neighborhoods with low rates of flu vaccination. This is important given that more than 200,000 people are hospitalized and 36,000 people die each year from the flu. Children, pregnant women, and the elderly are most vulnerable to the respiratory ailment. The tracking system will also be used to identify bottlnecks in the yearly delivery of the vaccine.