The number one cause of illness that can be prevented in Georgia is smoking. If current smoking patterns continue, tobacco use will kill about 10 million people every year by the year 2020. State officials say over 11,000 Georgians die each year from a tobacco-related illness at a cost of $1.8 billion. Although bleak statistics are not enough to get people to stop, one employer in north Georgia is actively helping employees who want to end their addiction to nicotine.
Ronnie Anderson lives in Dalton where he has been making carpets at Shaw Industries for over 28 years. He had been smoking for longer than that. Anderson says he started work at the factory when he was 16 years old. He began buying cigarettes and quickly got addicted to nicotine.
"My father started smoking and I picked that up from him. I started smoking roughly at about 15 years old. I smoked for about 32 years, three to three and a half packs a day. I reckoned it relieved the tensions of the day."
The habit got so bad, Anderson says that before getting out of bed he would reach over and pick up a cigarette. By breakfast he had smoked at least eight. "Some people take nerve pills. You know that nicotine fix, it seemed like it just calmed me down. I didn't realize it was doing that much harm."
The dangers of smoking hit home for Anderson two years ago when his father was diagnosed with cancer. "We thought we were going to lose him. He came through the operation and they took a 26-pound tumor from his stomach, and that was a little bit of an incentive to go ahead and lay them down."
Anderson finally quit with the help of his employer. On company time he attended cessation classes at the factory. Each week he would meet with nurse Missy Wright who conducted the classes. "In my class I would buy calendars, and I would ask them to track every day how many cigarettes you smoke. "Let's see when you tend to smoke. What are your triggers?"
Wright uses a program called Fresh Start, which is endorsed by the American Cancer Society. She says of the 90 people who have taken the class, 80 percent have successfully quit. Wright says those employees have become more productive. "I think overall you find people who are smokers do go to the doctor more, they do have more cases of bronchitis and sinus infections, and even more serious conditions of emphysema. And our insurance now is based on if you smoke, you do pay more for your insurance premiums."
Rising healthcare costs for companies are driving cessation programs like Fresh Start. To sweeten the deal for employees who quit, Shaw Industries has added other benefits, such as a $175 gift certificate after a year of smoke-free living, and a party.
These kinds of incentives can make the difference. Michael Eriksen, public health professor at Georgia State University, says for almost all smokers quitting is hard. "Seventy percent of smokers would like to quit, wished they'd never started, and think it's the stupidest thing they've ever done." For those who do succeed, Eriksen says the main health hazards of smoking decrease, even among those who have smoked for 30 years or more.
It has been two years since Ronnie Anderson had his last cigarette. He says he feels better, has more energy, and more cash. "I figured out how much money I was wasting on cigarettes and I couldn't believe it. It was about $3,200 a year. I figured that up for about 30 years and that was over $100,000. I looked at that number and I said, 'Just think what you could do with that money,' and I went and bought me a car with it. And actually what I was saving on smoking, I'm making my car payments."
Anderson is now encouraging other smokers to quit because he says encouragement is the first step. "If you just sit and look at what you are really doing to yourself and look at how much money you're wasting, you'll lay them down."
What You Need to Know About Smoking
The Facts
More than 11,000 Georgians die each year from tobacco-related diseases.
Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in Georgia.
Nearly one in four people in Georgia smoke.
Nicotine
Nicotine is the drug that causes addiction and is found in substantial amounts in all forms of tobacco.
Several studies have found nicotine to be as addictive as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol.
Nicotine is absorbed readily from tobacco smoke in the lungs, and from smokeless tobacco in the mouth or nose, and spreads rapidly through the body.
Nicotine is used as an insecticide. Researchers continue to seek other uses for the tobacco plant, such as genetic engineering or growing biomass.
Cigarette Tobacco
From a public health perspective, tobacco has virtually no positive artributes.
Cigarettes account for the largest share of manufactured tobacco products in the world – 96% of total sales.
Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, 60 of which are known or suspected carcinogens and some of which have marked irritant properties. Some of the chemicals are: Acetone (paint stripper), Arsenic (ant poison), Butane (lighter fuel), Cadmium (car batteries), Carbon monoxide (car exhaust fumes), DDT (insecticide), Formaldehyde (embalming fluid), Hydrogen cyanide (capital punishment by gas), Methanol (rocket fuel), Nicotine (cockroach poison), Phenol (toilet bowl disinfectant), Propylene glycol (antifreeze), Toluene (industrial solvent), Vinyl chloride (plastics).
Health Effects of Smoking
Nearly 1 in every 6 deaths is related to smoking in Georgia.
Cigarettes kill more Georgians than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, and AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.
Smoking causes about 87 percent of all lung cancer cases in Georgia.
Cigarette smoking is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx, oral cavity, throat, and esophagus. It is a contributing cause in the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, liver, uterine cervix, kidney, stomach, colon, rectum, and some forms of leukemia.
Tobacco has a damaging effect on women's reproductive health; it is associated with increased risk of miscarriage, early delivery, stillbirth, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS); and it is a cause of low birth weight in infants.
Smoking is associated with reduced fertility.
Thomas Dubois, Director for Corporate Affairs with Phillip Morris, said in 2002, "Yes, we agree that smoking cigarettes, including our brands, causes lung cancer and other serious diseases in smokers."
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