Nearly 8 percent fewer Massachusetts adults smoked in 2007 than the
year
before, the steepest decline in cigarette use in more than a
decade, state
health authorities reported Wednesday.
The drop coincided with the revival of the state's
tobacco-control program,
which was slashed under the administrations of Jane Swift and Mitt
Romney.
The Department of Public Health, for example, in boosting its
spending by
50 percent, resurrected in-your-face television ads starring former
smokers
whose health was affected by cigarettes.
At the same time, the state's quest to insure nearly every
resident, which
has extended coverage to more than 350,000 adults, may have
contributed to
the decline.
"When we looked at studies about who influenced decisions about
ending
smoking, the primary-care doctor was at the top of the list," said
John
Auerbach, the state's public health commissioner.
The law establishing near-universal coverage also ordered the
state's
medical program that insures the poor to pay for smoking cessation
counseling and nicotine replacement patches.
Even as the state's smoking rate reached a historic low of 16.4
percent in
2007, there are strong hints that the decline is accelerating this
year.
When cigarette taxes increased by $1 a pack at the start of this
month, it
spawned a flurry of calls to the state hotline that helps smokers.
In a typical month, that service gets 400 or 500 calls. By
Wednesday, more
than 7,000 people had called his month, compelling the state to
extend a
nicotine replacement patch giveaway through August to meet demand.
That two-month campaign is costing $500,000. Overall, the state
spent close
to $13 million on tobacco control in the budget year that just
ended. At
its high point, in 2001, spending stood at $50.5 million; within a
few
years, it had plunged to $2.5 million.
Tobacco-control specialists not connected with the state
cautioned that it
can be risky to draw too many conclusions from one year's worth of
data.
But they also acknowledged that Massachusetts' smoking rates have
been
plunging for two decades.
Nearly 30 years ago, 4 in 10 men in Massachusetts smoked
regularly, said
Gregory Connolly, a Harvard School of Public Health professor.
"If you think back to that time, it's amazing," said Connolly,
former
director of the state's Tobacco Control Program. "But then we
fundamentally changed the social norms around smoking in
Massachusetts."
Fewer than 2 in 10 men currently smoke. Within a few years,
Connolly said,
smoking rates may hover near 10 percent, leaving only the most
"hardcore"
smokers. "Then what do we do?" he said. "Do we treat tobacco
like
cocaine or opium? Do we ban it?"
Smoking is blamed for 400,000 deaths a year, making it the
leading cause of
preventable death in the United States, according to the Centers
for
Disease Control and Prevention.
The one-year decline in smoking has been even more pronounced
among
adolescents, previously released figures showed. In 2007, 17.7
percent of
adolescents said they smoked regularly, down from 20.5 percent the
year
before.
The adult smoking rates emerged from an annual survey conducted
by the
state that asks thousands of residents about behaviors related to
their
health. Only California, Connecticut, and Utah have lower smoking
rates.
The decline has not been noticed only by those who oppose
tobacco: Big
tobacco has felt the drop acutely.
"The decline in the US cigarette market is one that continues
year on
year," said David Sutton, a spokesman for the nation's largest
cigarette
maker, Philip Morris USA. "We expect that to continue."
The company lost one more customer Wednesday: Joanne Lynn, a
Marlboro
devotee for 35 years.
Her husband had pressured her relentlessly to quit. Then there
was that
cigarette odor that fouled her clothing. "And we'll be taking a
walk, and
we're approaching a hill, and I say, 'Oh, my, we have to do the
hill,"'
said Lynn, 49, who sometimes wasn't sure her lungs could take the
climb.
So she finally decided to quit, in no small part because she and
other
colleagues received an e-mail from their boss telling them about
the
state's nicotine patch giveaway.
Her boss: Auerbach, the Department of Public Health
commissioner.
Now, she said, she won't have to play a daily game of
hide-and-seek.
"I used to sneak out of the building, run down the street, and
hope the
commissioner or somebody didn't catch me smoking my cigarette,"
said Lynn,
of Saugus, who works in the agency's graphic design department. "I
didn't
want to smoke in front of the building with the big DPH sign
there."
c.2008 The Boston Globe