Great Smokeout is today

By TOM CHIARI | STAFF WRITER

Alex Moshier, an 18-year-old student at Eastern Connecticut State University, started smoking along with his friends in social settings.

“Every time we hung out, I’d have one,” he said.  After two years, he’s trying to quit.

“I’m trying to quit cigarettes because it’s bad for you and it’s expensive.  Everyone around here smokes, and so it’s hard not to think about it,” Moshier said.

Today marks the 34th anniversary of the Great American Smokeout, as organizations like the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association provide support and try to empower smokers like Moshier to put a long-term plan to quit in place.

According to the American Cancer Society, tobacco use remains the largest single preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States, causing about 443,000 premature deaths, including 49,400 non-smokers annually.

Tobacco use also accounts for $193 billion in health-care expenditures and productivity losses each year.

Despite staggering numbers showing the negative effects of tobacco use, a recent Center for Disease Control report stated the smoking rate of U.S. adults had flat-lined around 20 percent despite recent increases in tobacco taxes.

Locally, ECSU appears to be a local haven for young smokers.

Eastern students Molly Maciolek of Ellington and Angela Valenti are two friends who regularly smoke together outside on the campus. Both said they started smoking within the last two years.

Meanwhile, though, 20-year-old ECSU student Zak Leavy said he has no immediate plans to quit, he will quit when he gets married.

For now, he said, he will continue to smoke.

“It’s a social thing and it’s an easy way to meet people,” Leavy said. “And it relaxes you, it gives you a little break.”

For him and other young adults, smoking is enjoyable and serves as a social tool, but for many the consequences are long lasting.

According to the CDC, 70 percent of smoking adults want to quit, but the American Lung Association says it takes an average of seven tries before one is successful.

The benefits of quitting smoking are visible immediately and long lasting, the ACS said.

Heart rate and blood pressure drop to normal levels almost immediately after quitting.

Smokers who quit at age 35 gain an average of eight years of life expectancy while long-term smokers who quit at age 65 gain an average of three years.

To coincide with this year’s Great American Smokeout, Windham Community Memorial Hospital will celebrate its one-year anniversary as a smoke-free campus while other hospitals across Connecticut make the same commitment for the first time.

WCMH will be joined by the Hospital of Saint Raphael, Norwalk Hospital, Saint Mary’s Hospital and Waterbury Hospital in creating a smoke-free environment.

“It’s gone quite well,” said WCMH spokesman Shawn Maynard of the smoking ban this morning.  “There are banners out in the parking lots and people are very understanding.”

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the hospital was scheduled to host speakers from the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and Pfizer.

Additionally, if any hospital employee commits to quitting smoking, they’ll win a cold turkey sandwich.

Maynard said the hospital regularly offers smoking cessation classes to workers who want to quit.

“The American Cancer Society is here to help smokers who want to quit, and we have an abundance of resources to assist,” said Patrice Bedrosian, director of communications for the ACS in Connecticut.

The American Cancer Society offers tips and tools for quitting smoking on its Great American Smokeout web site at cancer.org/greatamericans. They also offer the Quit For Life help line at 1-800-227-2345.