Smoking is banned in virtually all indoor workplaces in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia. But while local governments nationwide are clearing the air for nonsmokers, millions of people are still lighting up, with little hope of kicking the habit.
If current trends hold, tobacco will kill a billion people this century, 10 times the toll ittook in the 20th century, public health officials said Monday.
“Really it’s a matter of educating smokers of the dangers of tobacco use and letting them know they can have almost immediate benefits from quitting,” said Dawn Ward, spokeswoman with the American Cancer Society. “The government can help by supporting these educational programs.”
State and local governments offer varying levels of help. But rarely do their programs receive the same attention as lawmakers’ efforts to ban smoking in restaurants and bars.
“I don’t think there’s anything county governments can do,” said Prince George’s County Councilmember Thomas Hendershot. “There’s very little federal and state governments can do to control people’s personal habits.”
Tobacco accounts for one in five cancer deaths, or 1.4 million deaths worldwide each year, according to two new reference guides that chart global tobacco use and cancer. The new Cancer Atlas and updated Tobacco Atlas were released Monday at the International Union Against Cancer conference in Washington.
“We know with cancer, if we take action now, we can save 2 million lives a year by 2020 and 6.5 million by 2040,” said Dr. Judith Mackay, a World Health Organization senior policy adviser.
One useful tool would be state-level comprehensive prevention and cessation programs, said Jennifer Friedman, a spokeswoman with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. But few states use their tobacco settlement money for cessation, she said, despite what she called “crystal clear evidence these programs work.”
Virginia launched its “Quit Now” free cessation program last November. A 2003 Department of Health survey found 21.9 percent of the commonwealth’s population smoked. Of that number, 52 percent said they had tried to quit in the previous year.
Virginia’s General Assembly has rejected clean indoor air laws the past two years. Meanwhile, only 1,400 people have called Quit Now, in part due to a careful rationing of limited advertising dollars, said Shawna Shields, prevention services manager for the Virginia Department of Health’s Tobacco Use Control Project.
“There are not new ideas,” Councilman Hendershot said. “It’s simply to invest as heavily in the anti-smoking advertising as the tobacco industry has invested in pro-smoking advertising.”
Helping smokers quit
» In Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., call 800-QUIT-NOW
» Callers are automatically routed to the appropriate state program for assistance
» Also, visit the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association or www.smokefree.gov online.
The Associated Press and Examiner Intern Giovanni Russonello contributed to this article.
