Some blame it on tobacco company strategies and a lack of funding for anti-smoking programs.

By Lucy Jokiel

More than 20 percent of U.S. adults were smokers in 2009, about the same percentage as the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “The 40-year decline in tobacco use in the U.S. has stalled,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., at a press conference last year.

Vigorous national anti-smoking campaigns had contributed to a significant decline in tobacco use by adults in the U.S. between 2005 and 2009, but recent studies show the longstanding drop in smoking has stalled; one in five adults continue to smoke, concludes a recent CDC report.

The four-year stall in smoking rates indicates that “those who now smoke may be diehards and tough to convert, and that perhaps we got a bit too complacent way too soon,” says David L. Katz, director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at the Yale School of Medicine.

Smoking is the No. 1 preventable cause of illness and death in the U.S., and adult smokers lose an average of 13 to 14 years of life. But despite the well-known hazards of smoking, 16 percent of all deaths in Hawaii – more than a thousand people every year – can be attributed to tobacco.

Surveys show that 70 percent of tobacco users want to quit, and those smokers often make several attempts before they are successful. Here are some options for smokers:

• Research shows that efforts to stop smoking are greatly enhanced when a person takes part in an organized smoking cessation program such as HMSA's Ready, Set, Quit! The program offers HMSA members an individualized, coordinated, sustained, and multidisciplinary approach. Call 952-4400 on Oahu or 1 (888) 225-4122 toll-free on the Neighbor Islands.
• Visit the www.smokefree.gov website sponsored by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. The site contains an online step-by-step cessation guide, local and state telephone quit lines, and publications to help you quit.
• The American Lung Association in Hawaii is a nonprofit, voluntary public health organization dedicated to fighting lung disease and promoting lung health. For more information, call 537-5966 on Oahu or visit www.ala-hawaii.org.
• The Hawaii Tobacco Quit Line is a free local service for anyone who lives in Hawaii who wants to quit smoking or using tobacco; the program includes a specially trained quit coach. Call 1 (800) QUIT-NOW (784-8669).

Smoke gets in their eyes

Secondhand smoke remains a serious problem for nonsmokers. Nearly 100 percent of local children living with a smoker have measurable levels of toxic chemicals in their blood from exposure to cigarette smoke. Secondhand smoke is smoke from a lit cigarette or smoke exhaled by a smoker. In 2006, about 30 percent of Hawaii households reported at least one adult smoker.

In 2007, Elizabeth K. Tam, M.D., a pulmonologist and medical researcher at the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine, organized a three-year study of 2,000 keiki in 30 schools on Hawaii Island to look at triggers of respiratory disease. Tam and hundreds of community volunteers worked with the American Lung Association in Hawaii, created a community board, and attended meetings with the mayor, the Hawaii County Council, and other government officials. 

“What’s really scary is how tobacco smoke interacts with a pregnant mother’s DNA. If a mother smokes when she is pregnant, the toxic chemicals go into her blood and into her baby’s blood. So, her smoking can affect several generations,” Tam explains.

The level of air pollution in a car caused by smoke from a cigarette is so severe that breathing it is dangerous for everyone, says Tam. “Children breathe quicker than adults and are still developing physically. As a result, they run a greater risk of damaging health effects from exposure to secondhand smoke.”

Tam and her supporters worked with the American Lung Association in Hawaii to pressure the Hawaii County Council to pass a law prohibiting smoking on the beach or in motor vehicles with children under the age of 18. It is the first such law in the nation.

“The high level of child exposure to secondhand smoke underscores the need for parents to take additional steps to protect children, such as ensuring that homes, cars, and other places frequented by children are smoke-free,” says Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “For parents who smoke, the best step to protect children is to quit smoking.”