Tobacco Prevention & Cessation

Buncombe County Health Center works to improve the health of Buncombe County residents by promoting smoke-free air and tobacco-free lifestyles.

The Tobacco Control Program is managed through Project ASSIST, a local partnership of community members and agencies working together to reduce tobacco use among youth and adults and to promote public health policies that reduce the public’s exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

• While many smokers believe that smoking relieves stress, it is actually a major cause. Smoking only appears to reduce stress because it reduces the irritability and tension caused by the underlying nicotine addiction.
• Hearing loss and vision problems (including cataracts) have been linked to smoking.
• There are over 4000 chemical compounds in tobacco smoke. It is a class A carcinogen, comparable to arsenic, asbestos, and benzene.
• There are immediate and long-term health effects from quitting smoking or quitting using spit tobacco.
• Quitting is difficult, but not impossible.

Servicio Interpretes Gratis
    Free Language Assistance is Available

• Brief Cessation Counseling (5A’s)
• Financial Costs of Tobacco in North Carolina
• Second-Hand Smoke
• Smoking Cessation
• Tobacco Facts for Men
• Tobacco Facts for Pregnancy
• Tobacco Facts for Teens
• Tobacco Facts for Women
• Quit Smoking Resources
• Working Smoke Free in Buncombe County

The Brief Cessation Counseling Model can assist health care providers with helping patients to quit smoking and using smokeless tobacco by asking the 5A’s:

• Ask
• Assess
• Assist
• Advise
• Arrange

The 5A’s are a quick and easy intervention that health care and dental care providers can use to support patients to quit smoking and to quit using smokeless tobacco. By using the 5A’s as a vital sign, health care providers can remind and encourage patients at each visit.

According to the U.S. Public Health Service's Clinical Practice Guideline, Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, effective interventions for tobacco cessation include:

• The "5As" Brief Intervention
• Pharmacotherapy
• Motivational intervention  

Access a clinician’s packet

To schedule a training for your health care team, please contact Project ASSIST at 828-250-6990.

• A pack of cigarettes costs an average of $3.00 per pack.
• A person who smokes a pack of cigarettes per day, spends $1,095 per year.
• Annual health care expenditures in the North Carolina directly caused by tobacco use is $1.92 billion
• Total North Carolina Medicaid program payments caused by tobacco use: $600 million
• Citizens' state/federal taxes to cover smoking-caused government costs: $1.59 billion ($488 per household)
• Smoking-caused productivity losses in North Carolina: $2.82 billion
• Smoking-caused health costs and productivity losses per pack sold in North Carolina: $6.59
• Other non-health costs caused by tobacco use include direct residential and commercial property losses from smoking-caused fires (more than $500 million nationwide)

Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of a smoker. There are over 4,000 chemical compounds in second-hand smoke – over 50 can cause cancer.

Second hand smoke is classified as a group A carcinogen which is comparable to the most potent cancer-causing agents benzene, asbestos, arsenic, and vinyl chloride. Breathing second-hand smoke is a serious health risk that increases the risk of lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), and other illnesses, in people who don’t smoke.

The CDC (Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention) warns anyone who suffers from heart disease to avoid ANY second hand smoke

• Fast facts about secondhand smoke
• Buncombe County Smoking Control Rules
• Smoke-Free Dining Guide
• Help Your Work Place Go Smoke Free

Buncombe County Smoking Control Rules:

There is much scientific evidence that secondhand smoke is a health risk. Thererfore, Buncombe County implemented rules in 1993 to prohibit smoking in places of employment and in restaurants. However, the Smoking Control Rules were suspended as a result of a North Carolina law that was passed in 1993. The state law prohibits local governments from imposing smoking restrictions more stringent than the state’s limited rules.

For a more detailed explanation about the law, please access the North Carolina general statute 143-595 through 143-609 or call Project ASSIST at 828-250-6990.

Smoking in County Buildings:

The ordinance for county buildings was passed before the state law restricted local government’s authority over smoking control rules. Therefore, this ordinance remains in effect . The ordinance prohibits smoking inside all county buildings.

Counseling is available to anyone who is thinking about quitting smoking.

Buncombe County OB (pregnancy) patients can be enrolled in the “Be Smoke Free for Your and Your Baby” program through your doctor or midwife’s office. For more information call 250-6987. The program offers counseling and educational assistance to develop a plan to quit smoking.

Updated information on group quit smoking programs offered in the community is available as well as other programs, resources and medications.

For more information call Health Promotion Division at 250-6985.

• In North Carolina, 839,800 men smoke, which is nearly 3 out of 10 men.
• About 910 kids in North Carolina, lose their dads to smoking each year.
• Smoking may reduce fertility and lead to impotence among men.
• Smokers heal slower from injuries than nonsmokers.
• Smokeless tobacco (spit tobacco) users are up to 50 times more likely to get oral cancer than non-users.
• Spit tobacco causes leukoplakia, a disease of the mouth characterized by white patches and oral lesions on the cheeks, gums, and/or tongue.

• Smoking has a damaging effect on women's reproductive health and is associated with reduced fertility and early menopause
• Women who smoke during pregnancy subject themselves and their developing child to risks such as pregnancy complications, premature birth, low birth weight, stillbirth, and infant mortality.
• Research suggests that intrauterine exposure and passive exposure to secondhand smoke after pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).
• The health benefits of quitting smoking far outweigh any risks from weight gain caused by smoking cessation
• For every dollar invested in smoking cessation for pregnant women, about $6 are saved in neonatal intensive care costs and long-term care associated with low birth-weight deliveries

• Nearly every adult who smokes (almost 90 percent) took his or her first puff at or before the age of 18? So that means that almost all smokers started smoking in their teens.
• The average age when someone tries tobacco for the first time is 13. And 1/3 to 1/2 of kids who experiment with smoking become regular smokers.
• 37% of high school teens in Western North Carolina use some form of tobacco
• There are 52,700 kids under 18 in North Carolin who try cigarettes for the first time each year. About 24,000 of those kids become new, regular daily smokers each year.
• Most adolescents who smoke are addicted to nicotine.  When young people try to quit smoking, they experience withdrawal symptoms very similar to those experienced by adults. And it's no wonder!  Nicotine is more addictive than heroin!!
• More than 5 million children living today will die prematurely because of a decision they will make as teens - the decision to smoke cigarettes.
• % of high school students in Western North Carolina use some form of tobacco
• In North Carolina, there are 416,000 Kids exposed to second hand smoke at home.

• In the 1980’s, lung cancer overtook breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death of women. Since 1950, lung cancer death rates for women have increased 600%.
• Currently about 22 million women 18 years and older and at least 1.5 million adolescent girls in the United States smoke cigarettes
• Daily smoking rates among female high school seniors have increased from 17.9 % in 1991 to 23.6 % in 1997.
• Smoking rates among U.S. women 18 yrs and older vary considerably by racial/ethnic groups.
• Women have a more difficult time quitting smoking than men, and have lower cessation rates.

Help is available for anyone who would like to quit smoking or quit using spit tobacco.

We can provide information on nicotine replacement medicines, group quit smoking programs offered in the community, and other resources. For more information call 250-6990.

Buncombe County Health Center also helps pregnant women to quit smoking. OB (pregnancy) patients can be enrolled in the “Be Smoke Free for Your and Your Baby” program through your doctor or midwife’s office. The program offers counseling and educational assistance to develop a plan to quit smoking. For more information about “Be Smoke Free” program, call 250-6987.

Other Resources:

• Call A Toll Free Telephone Quit Line and Get Help On the Phone!
  
  1-800-QUIT NOW (1-800-784-8669); Monday-Friday, 9:00am - 4:30pm
• 1-866-66-START (1-866-667-8278); Monday-Friday, 8:00am - 8:00pm; Saturday, 9:00am - 4:00pm

Find A Local Program!

• Quit Now! NC Smoking Cessation Local Referral Directory

Get Free Help On the Internet!

• www.smokefree.gov
• www.americanlegacy.org
• Step Up Against Tobacco Use! for North Carolina Teenagers
• American Lung Association’s Freedom From Smoking

• www.questionwhy.org

The cost benefit to an employer for adopting a smoke-free policy at the worksite can be significant. Buncombe County Health Center's Project ASSIST can help employers set up a good policy and provide technical assistance through the process. We can also help employees advocate for smoke-free worksites.

• www.workingsmokefree.com

Karen Caldwell, MPH
(828) 250-6990
karen.caldwell@buncombecounty.org