Three decades worth of proof: Minnesota cities prove critics of smoking-cessation efforts wrong, wrong, WRONG!

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St Paul have a lot to brag about today. Dr Kriston Filion presented the Minnesota Heart Survey, which chronicled three decades' worth of progress on smoking-cessation efforts there. Since 1980, the number of current smokers fell by a staggering 50%. Now, only 15% of men in Minneapolis/St Paul smoke and only 12% of women. (Coming from a state where an embarrassing one in four pregnant women smoke, this ole Kentucky gal was envious but hopeful. Our smoking ban went into effect in Glasgow, KY in June of this year, so we can now look forward to decades' worth of the same benefits.)

What the rest of the country must do is to examine the difference between what's working in Minnesota and what isn't in many parts of the country. It's really a tale of the "haves" and the "have-nots." What the Twin Cities "have" is a higher tax rate on tobacco products, a statewide smoking ban, a huge settlement that was utilized for education, and a large insurance conglomerate, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, which got behind the cessation movement. Those who are the "have-nots" are the states with fewer organized efforts toward implementing bans and with lower taxation that allows smoking rates to go unchecked. Filion's study observed that even in current smokers, the number of cigarettes smoked daily declined. Although one must be careful to point out that the risk of cardiac death and cancer still remain exceptionally high for those "lighter smokers," the rate of secondhand exposure for their family members and acquaintances will still have a significant impact on heart attack, cancer death rates, and ER visits for asthma treatment.

There are still problems in Minneapolis/St Paul, though. The age at which teenagers begin to smoke stayed the same for men but dropped to one year younger for women. This fact proves that subtle marketing ploys on behalf of the tobacco industry are still working. The addiction science perfected by them is still more effective than any other efforts ever made to permanently reconfigure the receptors in the human brain with an intense almost uncontrollable yearning for nicotine. Most important, one must applaud the cities' efforts at not only implementing antismoking measures but as important, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the programs there. Now that they have targeted this disturbing trend in teen smoking, they can reorganize efforts and ramp up programs to combat that growing problem as well.

I'd like to submit a wish list for the Twin Cities. Since opponents of smoking-cessation efforts always claim (along with the endless whining about smokers' rights being trampled) there is no monetary benefit from taxation, education, and legislation, cities with such astounding success in smoking prevalence need to report on the economic impact on healthcare expenditures for tobacco-related illnesses. Naysayers who are never impressed with lower death rates or lower pediatric morbidities have less impact when we translate smoking-cessation efforts into dollars saved.

Congratulations, Minneapolis/St Paul! In this era of paranoia about big government, you've proven that more government, not less, on the smoking issue works to lower smoking prevalence even better than any of us could ever have imagined. I'm glad you could be one of the first to say, "I told you so" (and it's okay to stick your tongue out too!). 

Your comments

	Three decades worth of proof: Minnesota cities prove critics of smoking-cessation efforts wrong, wrong, WRONG!
	# 1 of 5	November 15, 2010 03:30 (EST)
	tamarock	Dr. Wlton-Shirley----I am not sharing your applause.   As a lone anti-obesity campaigner (since 1992) I have protested with health autorities about one prominent, well known side effect of quitting, instantwight weight gain! I urged them to inform people that clean living boosts appetite, eat less or weightgain will happen. Were they told? Of course not! You know why teenage girls take up the ugly habit. Cessation, for more than three decades has promoted obesit!   Take note: In June 2010 I announced the discovery of the cause of obesity. Revolutionary in all espects. It is well versed in addiction, food folly. Forget food guides and diets, the have done enough damage. hartsmartliving.com ------and I do smke the occasional cigar
	# 2 of 5	November 19, 2010 01:47 (EST)
	Dr. Cintora F	I can not belive a physician writres such a thing!!!  I am not sharing any of these concepts. Congratulations Minesotta and Dr Walton-Shirley.
	# 3 of 5	November 19, 2010 05:45 (EST)
	hartsmart	A comparision; Dr. Walton Shirley--- Hart Oldenburg. The Doctor is the Physition. I am not.My education was derived  as a member  of a hungry german Army. Prisin camps-- 200-300 calories for three months, porridge for a year, starving as a civilian in Gemany only black market tobacco counted. No legal currency! I observed the ultimate addiction. Everybody smoked few died. Back to food: My deprivation had a miraculous recovery. Supreme health. Instict guided. That's why I had to anti-write Guides and  diets. I could not not write.  hartsmartliving.com
	# 4 of 5	November 19, 2010 10:15 (EST)
	Melissa	Hartsmart, I'm so sorry for your plight.  However, at least in my area, many of the young smokers start dying long before they are obese. None the less, food choices are of supreme importance along with moderate exercise. We encourage the total package for healthy living.  The whole is the sum of all the parts thereof! Thanks for posting Melissa
	# 5 of 5	January 10, 2011 04:02 (EST)
	Di	Well, I think its cause for celebration!  Well done, Minnesota.  What you need to move on to now is the next stage that includes getting across to light smokers that they are not gaining much in the way of health benefits by merely cutting down.  Only quitting will do this and restore their life expectancy and well-being.  The other issue is that of temporary weight gain - not so harmful as smoking which is the worst thing you can do to your body, bar none.  Prospective quitters need the best advice and support about <A href="http://www.smokefree-me.com/">how to stop smoking</A> so that they do eat healthily through the quitting stage and beyond.

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