Latest Updates

2008 Smoking: End the Epidemic, a ground-breaking summit on tobacco reform and smoking cessation.

Even though California’s adult smoking rate dropped to a historic low of 15.4 percent in 2004, nearly 4 million Californians continue to smoke making California the state with the largest smoking population. And although the smoking rate among California adults overall is 15 percent, among poor families it’s generally about twice that amount. Another disturbing trend is that youth smoking is on the rise and the decline in smoking rates across the United States is leveling off. It is clear that new antismoking approaches are required.

As long term smokers continue to try to quit but fail and young people continue to get hooked, we must ask ourselves - are we doing everything we can to save the lives of those who are addicted? And, are we doing all that we can to save society the heath care costs and lost productivity costs that eventuality result from the death and disease that smoking causes? What can we do as healthcare providers, employers, policymakers and patient advocates to help smokers quit once and for all?

Listen to or download audio from the Summit:

• Opening Remarks and Deadly Addiction
• The Problem
• The Solutions and Closing Remarks

An article by Jane E. Brody in the New York Times.

Survey statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 70 percent of smokers say they want to quit and that 40 percent try to quit each year. But 80 percent of smokers who try to quit on their own relapse within a month, the data show, and only 3 percent remain former smokers at six months.

Though long called a lifestyle choice or pernicious habit, smoking is now widely recognized as an addictive disease comparable to alcoholism or heroin addiction.

Don Sipple writes about his choice to quit.

The American Lung Association recently released their annual State of Tobacco Control Report which grades each state on four key tobacco control areas: Tobacco Prevention and Control Spending, Cigarette Tax, Smokefree Air, and Youth Access. To see the California grades, our news release and the full national report, click here.

An editorial by Roxanna Bautista in AsianWeek.

The National African American Tobacco Education Network (NAATEN) recently released an executive summary of a nearly yearlong assessment of quitlines as an intervention to reach and increase quit rates among African American and Black tobacco users.

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 25, 2007 – A nationwide survey of employers released today shows that a majority of employers ranked smoking as one of the greatest priority health issues facing their companies, second only to obesity, but only two percent offer the comprehensive benefit recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1 The results were announced at a plenary session at the National Business Group on Health/Integrated Benefits Institute Joint Forum on Health, Productivity & Absence Management.

“It’s encouraging that companies recognize smoking as a top priority. Nicotine addiction from smoking is a chronic, relapsing medical condition that studies have shown is best treated with a combination of medication and counseling,” said Ron Finch, vice president at the Business Group. “Employers are beginning to recognize that tobacco use is the low hanging fruit relative to employee health status and health care cost, but few have implemented evidence-based tobacco cessation benefits.”

The CDC's Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs is an evidence-based guide to help states plan and establish effective tobacco control programs to prevent and reduce tobacco use.

In the State Capitol, everyone seems to have a lobbyist these days—except regular people. Take health care reform. The big players are working behind closed doors to put their stamp of approval on new legislation. Meanwhile working folks who need the attention of our lawmakers the most, risk being left behind.

With the special session on health care going on in the state Capitol, there has been renewed attention on how to fix our broken health care system. But before we can make a comprehensive change, we need to fix one of our oldest and most persistent public health threats — tobacco addiction. Although many diseases get front page coverage, smoking addiction has always been and remains one of the greatest health threats to the American public, especially our most vulnerable poor and minority citizens. Poorer Americans are more likely to begin smoking, more likely to be current smokers, and less likely to quit smoking. What's more, smoking is more likely to keep poor Americans stuck at the bottom of the economic ladder.

One of the most compelling recommendations from the President’s Cancer Council didn’t make headlines, but it should have.

The panel, including Texas’ own Lance Armstrong and Dr. Margaret Kripke of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, recommends that tobacco-cessation services and medications be a standard part of all health insurance.

When it comes to smoking we have all seen the disturbing facts and figures. One in three cancers is attributable to tobacco. Tobacco kills one in five Americans and is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in California. In one year alone, smoking caused over 37,000 deaths in California resulting in lost-productivity costs of more than $8 billion. Calling tobacco a unique product is an understatement- tobacco kills more Americans than AIDS, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, homicides, suicides, car accidents and fires combined.

New laws to ban smoking are important tools to protect against second hand smoke and deter people from starting to smoke and falling into addiction. And these laws are sure fire ways to make headlines as the tobacco industry always loudly fights back. But there is another important component that must be tackled — creating effective ways to help people quit.

Seventy percent of current smokers want to quit, but fewer than seven percent can stay smoke-free for an entire year. Here’s why: nicotine addiction is stronger than logic and reason. Raising taxes on cigarettes and banning smoking in public places are critical steps, but more must be done to help smokers go tobacco-free.

Leading health groups joined Senator Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) today in calling for increased efforts in health care reform to help California’s smokers quit smoking and stay quit.

“Smoking is a dangerous addiction, not a habit. It requires treatment and support,” said Torlakson. “By guaranteeing smoking cessation services for those who want and need it, we will prevent disease and save lives and precious Californian tax dollars.”