By Anshool Deshmukh
Three teams from the Georgia Department of Public Health shared the stage during the workshop on tobacco prevention and control. Oluwayomi Fabayo and his colleagues used small, mobile monitors to measure the indoor air quality establishments that are exempt from Georgia’s ban on smoking in public places. Sampling in five cities found that particles and chemicals remain in the air long after smokers extinguish their cigarettes, putting anyone who enters the environment at risk for adverse health effects, Fabayo reported. Although smoking has been prohibited in shops, restaurants and most workplaces since 2005, the Georgia Smoke-free Air Act exempts bars and 18-and-older establishments as well as designated smoking areas. These findings indicate that legislators should eliminate these loopholes if the goal is to guard Georgians against health dangers associated with secondhand smoke, said Fabayo, program and policy, advisor for the Georgia DPH.
Turning to help for smokers, Kayla Lloyd reported that promoting the Georgia Tobacco Quit Line to physicians pays off in terms of tobacco cessation. Doctors who participate in the Georgia cAARds Program makes pacts with doctors who agree to ask every patient whether they smoke, advise them about the benefits of stopping, and refer them to the Georgia Tobacco Quit Line for follow up. This phone service provides support seven days a week for smokers looking to quit the deadly habit, said Lloyd, the state’s tobacco cessation coordinator. It has a 33 percent quit rate and is meant to help smokers who can’t make it to face-to-face support groups because they live in rural areas or lack transportation.
The final key to making smoking a thing of the past is to influence children and young people before they light up, said Anne Marie Coleman, also a DPH advisor. Raising the prices of tobacco products, developing anti-tobacco media campaigns and involving communities in restricting minors’ access to such products are key in curbing youth smoking rates. The rise of e-cigarettes presents another problem, as they are viewed as a “safe” alternative, an incorrect and dangerous assumption, Coleman said.
The presenters emphasized that any tobacco use is dangerous, a message they are working to get out to the public.
