Stop Smoking Way

In the end, Adam Cliff’s reason for giving up smoking was a simple one – and something rarely mentioned in campaigns encouraging smokers to quit: Romance.

“I was actually looking for a wholesome girl. If she’s good for me, she’s probably not going to like the taste of smoke.”

Adam, 22, has lost count of the times he had tried to quit smoking, before giving up in January this year, but suspects it was at least 20.

He had been smoking for about six years, after starting when he was a teenager in Wanganui.

“I was just out skateboarding with my mates and they offered me one. It was probably the stupidest thing I ever did.”

It tasted “quite good”. Soon he was smoking a handful of cigarettes a week. At the end of 2002, he moved to Australia for a year and gave up the habit. But upon returning, he caught up with his mates – and started again.

Previously he had cadged off others, but he started buying packets of tobacco, at one point peaking at about 80 grams a week.

He tried quitting “heaps of times” over the years. Once, he was down to half a cigarette in the morning and half in the afternoon.

“I probably should have quit then, or at least tried to. But I didn’t feel like giving up; I didn’t feel like being the person who wasn’t smoking. Mum always wanted me to quit … I was kind of like the black sheep in my family.”

He gave up for good after he moved to Wellington and his social circle changed.

“I suppose I was around a lot of people who weren’t smoking. I felt almost alone when I would go out and have a smoke. I also found it was getting too expensive now that I was supporting myself.”

His former smoking mates have been supportive. When they visited Wellington this year, they didn’t offer a cigarette and told him they wouldn’t give him one even if he asked.

“I still get the cravings now. It’s easier and it’s harder because I’m actually in it for the long haul. These cravings are going to keep happening for a while longer and I’ve got support – people who encourage my success.”

He is “pretty confident” he will not start smoking again. “It’s not something I want to go back to. I’ve started thinking about my future. It’s not anything I want to portray. It’s not me anymore.”

‘KEEP TRYING’

The Health Ministry’s national director of tobacco control, Ashley Bloomfield, says it takes the average smoker 14 attempts before they quit. Some can quit immediately; “for others it will be a lifelong battle”.

Latest statistics from the 2006-07 New Zealand Health Survey suggest about 20 per cent of adult Kiwis are current smokers.

Nineteen per cent of adults said they smoked daily – a “significant decrease” from the previous survey in 2003-04, when 23.4 per cent of people said they were daily smokers.

Dr Bloomfield, who had a “few puffs” himself in his early teens, says health officials are particularly pleased with the results of the most recent survey of year 10 pupils, which showed daily smoking prevalence among 14 and 15 year olds was continuing to decline. Most of the pupils had never smoked.

“They’ve never had a single puff. It’s an extraordinary change over the last decade. It’s not the thing you do now as a teen.”

Some of the lowest rates are among doctors, he says. Just 3.5 per cent reported being regular smokers in the 2006 Census. “You have to ask yourself why that is.” Doctors see the “huge impact” cigarettes have on the human body on a daily basis, he says.

Smoking cessation guidelines updated last year recommend doctors and other health workers give “brief advice” to all smokers to stop smoking, regardless of whether they say they want to.

The latest of the tobacco control initiatives was unveiled last week. Txt2Quit – an interactive text messaging service – was launched after a trial involving more than 1700 participants, carried out by the University of Auckland’s clinical trials research unit.

The study found the quitting rate for those who received the text-based services, including quit tips, was double that of the control group.

The scheme is targeted at those aged between 16 and 24. More than 27 per cent of that age group are smokers, says the Quit Group, which is running the service for the ministry.

Other Government initiatives have been more controversial – such as the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants introduced in December 2004 – and the introduction this year of gory pictures on cigarette packets. More graphic pictures are due next year.

The next step is likely to be a ban on cigarette displays in dairies and supermarkets, so that tobacco would be out of sight – and the ministry hopes out of mind.

It received 557 submissions on the issue during its consultation period, which sought feedback on three options: keeping current restrictions on how cigarettes are displayed, but with more education and enforcement; imposing more restrictions on how cigarettes are displayed; or a total ban on having them displayed. It is due to provide advice to the Government in the next few weeks.

Dr Bloomfield says: “We’ve made it clear from the start that from a public health point of view the evidence points towards a total ban and that would be our preference.”

FURTHER TO GO

So what more could be done?

Lobby groups and public health experts have argued that more of the tax on tobacco should be tagged to anti-smoking and health initiatives. About 70 per cent of the cost of a packet of cigarettes is tax, generating about $1 billion a year in tobacco tax revenues – only a fraction of which goes toward stopping people smoking.

A report commissioned for anti- smoking groups Smokefree Coalition and Ash last year said the average Kiwi smoker spent about $2135 on tobacco each year – and about $1500 was tax revenue.

The “tangible costs” of smoking to New Zealand, including healthcare costs, were estimated to be $1.7 billion in 2005.

Cigarette tax goes into the Government’s consolidated fund. The report argued New Zealand should have a dedicated tobacco tax fund to spend on tobacco control initiatives, and recommended $100 million a year as a starting point.

It also said tax rates should be increased, and changes made to the rates for loose tobacco “to ensure that smokers are not continuing to smoke rather than quitting, because of the availability of cheaper, hand-rolled cigarettes”.

Dr Bloomfield says the main reason for having tobacco tax is that high prices are shown to be an important factor in dissuading people from continuing to smoke.

In the 2008-09 year, the Government will spend about $55 million on anti-smoking initiatives. The money goes on:

* Smoking cessation programmes, including nicotine replacement therapy: $32 million.
* Health promotion, including “social marketing” campaigns to encourage smokers to quit: $15.2 million.
* Monitoring and evaluation: $850,000.
* Smokefree DHBs: $7 million.

SOME ADVERTISING HELPS

What does Adam think of what the Government has done so far?

He says he found television advertisements telling the stories of others who had quit inspiring, but he is less keen on the “Every cigarette is doing you damage” variety of advertisements. “Everyone knows that.”

What about the gory pictures on packets? “I think they are pretty gross. I don’t like them personally. But, if I was still a smoker, I don’t think it would stop me.”

He thinks hiding cigarettes from view in shops is a good idea. He used to go into a shop intending to buy a 30g packet of tobacco, but would end up buying a 50g packet.

“I would always upsize. I’d just see how much bigger and better it was.”

As a reformed smoker, he offers the following advice to others:

* “Don’t start – it’s stupid.”
* “Think of who you want to be with in the future and if you want them to be a smoker.”
* “Think of just how bad your breath does get.”

As for the girl, he’s still searching, “but there’s been a bit more attention”.

FUTURE SHOCK – KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR FURTHER ANTI-SMOKING INITIATIVES

Feeling picked on as a smoker? Research published in the latest edition of the New Zealand Medical Journal hints at anti-smoking initiatives that could happen here. Wellington researchers from Otago University’s public health department reviewed tobacco control initiatives in the article. They outline other steps that have been taken overseas which could be introduced here:

* Banning the use of the words “light” and “mild” for describing cigarettes. Those descriptions are banned in at least 23 other OECD countries. New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has been investigating the issue.

* Government-funded media campaigns that focus on “exposing the nature of the tobacco industry”. Such campaigns have been effective in the United States.

* Banning smoking in a wider range of outdoor areas – such as parks, playgrounds, beaches and outside the entrances to buildings. Some playgrounds and parks in New Zealand are smoke-free but these are local initiatives, rather than national ones.

* Smoke-free cars. Some overseas cities and states ban smoking while children are in a vehicle.

* Bigger graphic pictures on cigarette packets – the researchers note New Zealand’s pictures cover only 30 per cent of the front of the pack, compared with 50 per cent in Canada.

* Higher tax levels for loose tobacco.

WHO YOU GONNA TXT WHEN YOU NEED HELP QUITTING?

* Txt2Quit is a free interactive text message service that runs for 26 weeks. It is aimed mainly at people aged between 16 and 24, but anyone can join.

* It is organised into four stages, including a four-week “intensive” period in which the quitter gets three texts a day with advice.

* Quitters can ask for extra help by texting a range of words:

“Crave” – for when they are having a particularly tough time. They will receive texts with coping strategies.

“Slip-up” – for when they have had a cigarette or two. They will get texts to get them back on track.

“Relapse” – if they have started to smoke fulltime again.

“Blackout” – for periods during the day when they don’t want to get texts.

Related posts:

• Smoking advisers expect quit rush
• Outdoor smoking laws tough enough
• Stop smoking to fight cancer
• GSK Merges Anti-Smoking, Anti-Obesity Units
• State’s Anti-Smoking Plan Makes Cents

Tags: smoking habit