Monongalia County Health Department
  • HOME
  • SERVICES
  • News
    • Press Releases
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • MCHD Blog >
      • blog highlights
    • Video Library
    • Health Statistics
    • Education and Training
    • Posters
  • Dentistry
    • SMILE Express >
      • Portable SMILE Express Location Contact Form
      • SMILE Express Location Contact Form
      • Smile Express Referral Partner
    • Dental Services
    • Make an Appointment
    • Patients >
      • Child First Visit
      • Adult First Visit
      • Payment Options
    • Our Team
    • Contact
    • MCHD Dentistry Blog
  • Environmental
    • Contact Environmental
    • Food
    • Food Safety Training
    • Septic & Wells
    • Housing & Institutions
    • Recreation
    • Pools
    • Tattoo & Body Piercing
    • Rabies Control
    • Clean Indoor Air
    • Radon
    • Disaster Sanitation
    • Tanning
    • Fee Schedule
    • Online Permit Renewal
    • About Environmental Health
  • Clinics
    • Reproductive Health >
      • Family Planning
      • Adolescent Health
    • STD and HIV >
      • Syphilis
    • Immunizations >
      • Travel Clinic
      • School Immunizations
    • Communicable Disease >
      • TB Program
      • Influenza
      • Pertussis
    • Providers
  • Preparedness
    • COVID Dashboard
    • COVID-19
    • Testing & Vaccines
    • COVID-19 Links
    • COVID-19 Guidance
    • Mon Co. COVID-19 Stats
    • COVID-19 Press Releases
    • Recent Events
  • WIC
    • WIC Services
    • WIC Eligibilty Guidelines
    • WIC News
    • Doddridge County WIC
    • Harrison County WIC
    • Marion County WIC
    • Monongalia County WIC
    • Preston County WIC
    • Taylor County WIC
    • Breastfeeding
  • Mon QRT
    • QRT Press Releases
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Our Location
    • Board of Health >
      • BOH Meeting Agenda
    • Meeting Rooms
    • Job Opportunities
    • Notice of Privacy Practices

Don’t start smoking. And if you do, celebrate World No Tobacco Day by quitting.

5/23/2018

 
Picture
Don’t start smoking. And if you do, celebrate World No Tobacco Day by quitting.
By Mary Wade Triplett
If parents smoke, they run the risk of having their kids grow up following in those unhealthy footsteps—in addition to exposing them to dangerous secondhand smoke.

Luckily, I beat the odds. Being raised in a cloud of smoke made me hate cigarettes. When I moved away from my parents’ house and as public smoking became more and more unacceptable, I became so unaccustomed to smoke that now when it wafts my way, I truly cannot tolerate it.

And luckily, I didn’t hang with the cool kids, so it didn’t even occur to me to pick up a bad habit in an effort to get in with the popular crowd.

For those who do smoke, quitting is difficult. The easiest thing to do is not to start in the first place. Because it really doesn’t make anybody look cool, and it’s bad for them in so many ways.

Along those lines, we got some great news last December. According to data from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), the rate of adults who smoke in West Virginia declined from 28.6 percent in 2011—one of the highest rates in the United States—to 24.8 percent in 2016.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the commissioner of the DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health, said the decline is the first evidence that middle and high school students who never smoked and are growing up are finally making an impact on the larger adult population.

And while that 24.8 percent is a good drop from 28.6 percent, it’s still nearly 10 points above the overall rate in the U.S. of 15.5 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And it’s way above the rate in states such as Utah (8.8 percent) and California (11 percent).

That’s where the World Health Organization’s World No Tobacco Day comes in. This year, it takes place on Thursday, May 31, and the theme is “Tobacco—A Threat to Development.”

One reason is that around the world, according to WHO statistics, tobacco kills 7 million each year. But tobacco has other impacts in areas that some people might not expect.

For instance, it costs households and governments more than $1.4 trillion through health care expenditures and lost productivity.

Cigarettes are also bad for the environment. According to WHO:

•    Tobacco waste contains more than 7,000 toxic chemicals that poison the environment, including human carcinogens.
•    Tobacco smoke emissions contribute thousands of tons of human carcinogens, toxicants and greenhouse gases to the environment. And tobacco waste is the largest type of litter by count globally.
•    Up to 10 billion of the 15 billion cigarettes sold daily are disposed in the environment.
•   Cigarette butts account for 30–40 percent of all items collected in coastal and urban cleanups.

Around the world, tobacco makes a lot of impact on lives, especially women and children:

•    Poverty: Around 860 million adult smokers live in low- and middle-income countries. Many studies have shown that in the poorest households, spending on tobacco products often represents more than 10 percent of total household expenditure—meaning less money for food, education and healthcare.

•    Children and education: Tobacco farming keeps children from attending school; 10–14 percent of children from tobacco-growing families miss class because of working in tobacco fields.

•    Also, 60–70 percent of tobacco farm workers are women, putting them in close contact with often hazardous chemicals.

•    Tobacco contributes to 16 percent of all noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) deaths.

As WHO notes, tobacco use is one of the largest preventable causes of noncommunicable diseases.

While not starting to smoke is best, there’s also help for folks out there who want to kick the habit. After all, smoking can lead to cancer and heart and lung disease, and secondhand smoke is harmful not only to strangers but to friends and family, including kids and pets.

The West Virginia Tobacco Quitline was established in 2000 and has since enrolled more than 73,000 people for Quitline services. Here is what the Quitline offers:

•    One-on-one proactive coaching for tobacco users who are ready to quit.
•    Information on tobacco dependence for health care professionals.
•    Information about local resources to help tobacco users quit.
•   Free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), which includes patches, gum and lozenges. NRT is delivered in two shipments of four each week.
•    Four free proactive coaching calls.
•    Unlimited reactive coaching calls.
•    Free educational materials and personalized quit plan.
•    Fax-to-Quit Program—a form to fill out to join this program is available online.

If you smoke, give Quitline a call at 304-QUIT-NOW. And access more information and the above form online at http://dhhr.wv.gov/wvdtp/cessation. Celebrate WHO’s World No Tobacco Day by kicking cigarettes to the curb!
Mary Wade Triplett is the public information officer at Monongalia County Health Department.

Comments are closed.
    MCHD logo

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Picture
Lee B. Smith, MD, JD
Health Officer
Monongalia County
Health Department

453 Van Voorhis Road
Morgantown, WV 26505
Hours M-F 8:30-4:30
(304) 598-5100


Home Page
MCHD Services
Public Health Nursing
Environmental Health
WIC Program
MCHD Dentistry
Threat Preparedness
Food Safety Training

Provider Information
Health Statistics

Contact Us
Location/Directions
Training Opportunities
Job Opportunities
Privacy Practices
Website Notices

Contact Us
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter