Tobacco Cessation and Prevention
Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County partners with worksites, schools, and community organizations to offer free tobacco cessation for residents of Montgomery County; and participants receive a one month supply of patches.
Cessation is provided by a Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist using the Mayo Clinic Cessation Model:
- Week 1: Thinking about quitting.
- Week 2: Getting ready.
- Week 3: It’s quit week.
- Week 4: Staying quit for good.
- Week 5: All other concerns.
Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County has a very successful cessation partnership with Miami Valley Hospital, CareSource, and many other worksites. In the past year, cessation services offered throughout Montgomery County have served over 350 community members with over 60% successfully quitting. If your worksite or community organization is interested in cessation, please contact us at (937) 225-5700.
Three Years is saving Lives
eighteen twenty-one
A 2015 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that raising the tobacco sale age to 21 will have a substantial positive impact on public health and save lives.4 The IOM finds that raising the tobacco sale age will:
- Significantly reduce the number of adolescents and young adults who start smoking;
- Reduce smoking-caused deaths
- Immediately improve the health of adolescents, young adults and young mothers who would be deterred from smoking, as well as their children.
Know the Risk
Cigarettes
Cigarettes typically consist of tobacco, chemical additives, a filter, and paper wrapping. The smoke inhaled from a burning cigarette contains a mix of over 7,000 harmful chemicals. More than 70 of these chemicals are linked to cancer. There is no evidence that cigarettes advertised as “organic,” all-natural,” or “additive-free” are any safer or less harmful. Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, and causes many diseases, including heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.
Smokeless Tobacco
Smokeless tobacco is tobacco that is not burned. There are many types of smokeless tobacco, including chewing tobacco, oral tobacco, spit or spitting tobacco, dip, chew, and snuff. Smokeless tobacco has high levels of chemicals and other substances that can cause cancer. People who use smokeless tobacco have a high risk of mouth and throat cancer.
E-Cigarettes
E-cigarettes are also called e-cigs, vape pens, mods and pod mods (which often look like USB drives). These devices heat a liquid into an aerosol that’s inhaled by the user. The aerosol from e-cigarettes is not just harmless water vapor. It contains a mix of potentially harmful chemicals that are not safe to breathe. Most e-cigarettes also contain nicotine. Nicotine is very addictive and can harm brain development, which continues past adolescence into the mid-20s.
Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking
Smoking is toxic to your health and the health of others. Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ system within the body and can cause several chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Each year smoking claims the lives of more than 480,000 Americans, including 41,000 Americans who die due to secondhand smoke exposure (CDC, 2018). Smoking also reduces the quality and length of one’s life. Smokers can expect to die, on average, 10 years before non-smokers. By quitting, smokers can add back quality years to their life.
- Bladder
- Blood (acute myeloid leukemia)
- Cervix
- Colon and rectum (colorectal)
- Esophagus
- Kidney and ureter
- Larynx
- Liver
- Oropharynx (includes parts of the throat, tongue, soft palate, and the tonsils)
- Pancreas
- Stomach
- Trachea, bronchus, and lung
Smoking also increases the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases in cancer patients and survivors.
If nobody smoked, one of every three cancer deaths in the United States would not happen.
The Burden of Tobacco Smoking
Tobacco smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, with cigarette smoking alone killing more than 480,000 Americans each year. It causes immediate damage to your body, which can lead to long-term health problems. For every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness. The best strategy to protect yourself from the harmful effects of smoking is to never smoke, and if you do smoke tobacco products, to quit.
