With less than six months until all District workplaces go smoke-free, the D.C. government is putting money into an effort to help more than 110,000 city smokers kick the habit.
As part of the fiscal 2007 budget, D.C. Council Member David Catania earmarked $500,000 for the Tobacco Free Families Campaign, a program operated by the local chapter of the American Lung Association. The funding will be used to provide smoking cessation therapies to health care clinics, launch the “D.C. Quit Line,” counsel new parents about the dangers of secondhand smoke for children and train cessation specialists who will conduct community quitting clinics.
“All the places that have gone smoke-free, they’ve had very significant drops in smoking the first year,” said Debra Annand, director of cessation services with the American Lung Association of D.C. “We’re encouraging people to quit and we’ll have resources to help them be successful.”
The target audience for Tobacco Free Families, she said, are Medicaid recipients and lower income families without easy access to tobacco cessation programs. Visit tobaccofreefamilies.org for more information.
Anti-smoking activists have long complained that the District doesn’t use tobacco settlement dollars for smoking cessation programs. Tobacco Free Families is the first local program to receive public money, getting $400,000 this year and another $500,000 next year.
With public support, “all services and nicotine withdrawal therapies are free,” according to the organization’s Web site.
A recent cessation clinic was held July 13 for D.C. Council employees. Roughly 15 staffers took advantage, receiving free nicotine patches and gum, stress balls and counseling sessions in private booths with trained counselors.
“We know that people who smoke often find it challenging to quit on their own,” said Catania, chairman of the health committee. “We want to change that by creating a large support system for smokers, to better increase their chances of succeeding in living a tobacco-free life.”
Smoking stats
» Smoking kills 700 D.C. residents each year
» 14 percent of District high school students smoke
» 25 percent of D.C.’s black residents smoke
» 38 percent of Medicaid recipients smoke
Source: Tobacco Free Families
