Smoking can be a tough nut to crack.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says nicotine dependence is “the most common form of chemical dependence in the United States,” and adds, “Nicotine is as addictive as heroin, cocaine or alcohol.”
Michelle Bollinger, coordinator for the Duke Medicine-affiliated Scully-Welsh Cancer Center at Indian River Medical Center, knows that as well as anyone.
That’s why she points to this coming Nov. 19 as an important health date in Vero Beach as well as throughout the country.
Nov. 19 is the date of “The Great American Smoke-Out.”
“We’re really trying to help people quit smoking,” says Bollinger. “Here in the hospital, we are doing a lot of events during then entire month of November, because the month of November itself is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.”
To that end, Bollinger is busily coordinating with Leslie Spurlock, tobacco prevention specialist with the Tobacco-Free Partnership of Indian River County and the QuitDoc Foundation of Coral Springs, Florida, as well as a host of local physicians to help Vero area residents quit tobacco.
Created in 2008, the QuitDoc Foundation’s mission is to “mobilize community partners to establish long-lasting system and policy changes that promote tobacco-free social norms in order to prevent usage of tobacco products by youth and young adults, encourage and support tobacco cessation, eliminate the hazards of second-hand smoke and decrease the number of deaths due to tobacco products.”
As has been reported here on several occasions, that’s a lot of deaths.
In Florida alone, almost 12,000 people will die from lung cancer this year. Nationally, according to the American Cancer Society, that figure explodes to nearly 160,000 deaths annually. Each year, more people die from lung cancer than colon cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.
That’s in no small part because in the not-too-distant past, cigarette smoking had become ubiquitous in the United States. People smoked in offices and restaurants, on commercial airlines, in movie theaters and even in the waiting rooms of their doctors’ offices. Odds were even pretty good that their physician was a cigarette smoker, too.
It wasn’t until 1964 that the American public got slapped in the face with the facts about cigarettes. The then-Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Luther Terry, issued his scathing report called “Smoking and Health” and slowly people’s attitudes towards cigarettes began to change.
Changing an attitude, however, is one thing. Kicking an addiction is quite another.
Bollinger, Spurlock and QuitDoc Foundation co-founder, Dr. Barry Hummel, Jr., all know it takes more than just dire warnings to help long-time smokers quit. Hummel will be speaking at the Nov. 19 Great American Smoke-Out event at the First Presbyterian Church at 520 Royal Palm Blvd from 5:30 p.m., along with Dr. Diego Maldonado, Dr. Hermes Velasquez, Dr. Heather Nagel, Dr. Raul Story and smoking cessation specialist, Bob Wright.
Free stop-smoking classes are held at IRMC and at Piper Aircraft. Those who sign up for and attend a series of six once-a-week smoking cessation classes may be given free nicotine patches, nicotine chewing gum or lozenges to ease their cravings and help them get into a smoke-free lifestyle.
There is even an option to obtain free lung cancer low-dose CT screenings.
While Medicare will now cover annual low-dose CT scans, some private insurers may not, so through a privately funded program called the “Pay It Forward Fund,” Vero area residents who cannot afford the $200 fee can get that scan at no cost. Make no mistake. The sooner lung cancer is detected, the better the patient’s chances of survival.
Additionally, IRMC runs a free Cancer Program Help Line at 772-567-4311, extension 3-4357, as well as an online site at www.screenmylungs.com where people can take a short quiz to assess their risk for lung cancer.
Like all hospitals today, IRMC is a totally smoke-free environment. It is, however, also aware that many patients who are admitted are smokers with nicotine addictions.
Bollinger says she and her colleagues try to help by having “the doctor get you some nicotine replacement while you’re in the hospital.
“We want to make you comfortable. We don’t want you to have the urge to have a cigarette while you’re here with us. We’re hoping it might be the beginning, too, of you being able to quit.”
To that end, Bollinger continues, “We have over 25 nurses here that are already certified as bedside smoking cessation interventionists and they are all registered nurses.” Fifteen more will be added soon. The goal, she says, is to have a staff that understands how to support a person who smokes and help them beat the habit.
Smoking can, indeed, be a tough nut to crack but Bollinger and her colleagues are doing their best to make it easier.
A simple first step might be to call 772-567-4311, extension 3-4459, and reserve a seat at the Great American Smoke-Out event at Vero’s First Presbyterian Church for the Nov. 19 event and take advantage of the free smoking cessation tools that will be available.