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Smoke-free
workplaces can help smokers quit, expert says
La
Crosse Tribune, Jan
04, 2007 by Rindfleisch,
Terry
Smoke-free workplaces not only will
protect children and adults from secondhand smoke but also will
encourage smokers to quit, said a national expert on smoking
cessation.
Dr. Michael Fiore, director of the
Center for Tobacco Research and intervention at the University of
Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said 80 percent of
smokers want to quit, and they say more smoke-free environments
provide motivation.
"Nothing drives down health care
costs more than getting employees to quit smoking," Fiore said.
"And besides, every employee deserves a safe and smoke-free
workplace."
Fiore, who was in LaCrosse on Wednesday
to talk to employers and health officials about smoke-free workplaces
and campuses, urged La Crosse area politicians to adopt smoke-free
workplace ordinances because local efforts could encourage state
legislators to follow suit.
"Wisconsin may be poised to move
ahead with this (smokefree workplace law)," Fiore said.
The La Crosse Area Health Initiative
plans to introduce smoke-free workplace ordinances to the La Crosse
County Board and in LaCrosse, Onalaska, Holmen and West Salem.
Madison, Appleton and Shorewood Hills are the only Wisconsin
municipalities to already adopt smoke-free workplace laws.
Smoke-free campuses went into effect
Monday at Franciscan Skemp, Gundersen Lutheran, Black River Memorial
Hospital in Black River Falls, Wis., and Western Technical College.
Fiore said hospitals now need to reach
out to employees to help them quit and develop plans and a
"bedside consult" with hospitalized smokers who want to
quit.
Fiore said half of smokers will die
from a tobacco-related disease if they don't quit."On average,
smokers are robbed of 13 to 14 years of life, and often have a
miserable existence in the end," he said.
Like Medicaid and the state's
BadgerCare plan, every health insurance plan needs to cover the cost
of treatment for nicotine addiction, Fiore said. Every health plan
covers $5,000 to $10,000 for treatment of a heart attack, but not $200
to $400 to help smokers quit, he said.
Studies have shown counseling and
medications provide the most successful treatment for quitting
smoking, Fiore said.
He supports a proposed cigarette tax,
he said, because research indicates such tax increases trigger a
decline in cigarette smoking. If the state Legislature approves the
cigarette tax increase, $50 million of the $250 million a year should
be earmarked for tobacco control efforts, Fiore said, with half of
that going to help smokers quit.
"Raising the cigarette tax is the
most powerful action you can take to reduce smoking in the
state," Fiore said.
This original article can be found online at:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3652/is_200701/ai_n17220557/print
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