(L-R) Brandon, Terrie and Roosevelt, featured as former smokers in the "Tips From Former Smokers"  http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/ ad campaign, attended the 2012 NCTOH conference.  They discussed with Connie F. Smith (far right), health communications specialist, how they quit smoking.

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing more than 443,000 Americans each year according the CDC. In fact, more than 8 million Americans are living with a smoking-related disease, and every day more than 1,000 youth under 18 become daily smokers.

Georgia shares in the burden of tobacco-related illnesses and deaths with 10,000 people dying of smoke related diseases each year. Smoking also costs Georgia $1.2 million in healthcare costs and another $2.3 million in productivity. These are reasons enough for staff from the Georgia Department of Public Health's (DPH) Tobacco Use Program Prevention (TUPP) team to join 2,000 attendees at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH), A New Era of Tobacco Control: Policy, Regulations and Prevention, hosted in Kansas City from August 15-17, 2012.

The DPH TUPP team represented smoking cessation, prevention, communications, surveillance, environmental tobacco smoke exposure and epidemiology. The conference offered a unique opportunity for TUPP to hear from and exchange ideas with the most innovative and experienced experts in tobacco use prevention and cessation at the local, state, national and international levels.

The conference's plethora of dynamic speakers and experts featured a who's who in tobacco control and cessation, including U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin; Howard Koh, assistant secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Ursula Bauer, director, CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; and Tim McAfee, M.D., M.P.H., director OSH.

Former smokers Terrie, Roosevelt, and Brandon, featured in CDC's Tips From Former Smokers ad campaign also attended and engaged in strategies to make states and communities tobacco-free.

The campaign profiles people living with the significant adverse health effects due to smoking, such as stomas, paralysis from stroke, lung removal, heart attack, limb amputations and asthma. The hard-hitting campaign underscores the immediate damage that smoking can cause to the body and feature real people who experienced smoking-related diseases at a relatively young age.

Terrie started smoking at age 18 and suffered from throat and mouth cancer by age 40, Roosevelt started smoking at age 18 and suffered a heart attack by age 45 and Brandon started smoking at age 14 or 15 and lost both legs to Buerger's disease by the time he was 18. All recounted how cigarettes and nicotine addiction changed their lives. Most importantly, they recalled the day they quit smoking.

Diane Biestle, chair of the communications branch for OSH, highlighted how the ads are helping people quit, saving lives and decreasing the huge economic burden caused by tobacco use. Moreover, the campaign serves as an important counter to expenditures for marketing and promotion of cigarettes that exceed $1 million an hour-more than $27 million a day-in the U.S. The Georgia Tobacco Quit Line (GTQL) has experienced a spike in the number of Georgians calling the quit line since the launch of the Tips campaign.

"Call volume to the Georgia Tobacco Quit line has increased more than 400 percent," said Shonta Chambers, M.S.W., director of the Office of Prevention and Wellness at DPH. "GTQL call volume reports indicate that the resulting call volume of tobacco users during the Tips campaign was 2,602 in March, followed by 3,698 in April. Prior to Tips and in the absence of an ongoing statewide media campaign, the average monthly call volume to the GTQL was approximately 1,000."  

During the closing plenary, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin said every day in America 1,200 smokers die from cigarettes and two youth replace them as new smokers. She challenged TUPP to prevent tobacco use among youth and young adults in Georgia through education and awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco and nicotine.

If you need help or know someone who needs help quitting tobacco use, call the Georgia Tobacco Quit Line today at (877) 270-STOP (7867) for free cessation counseling and available resources.

-Story by Connie F. Smith, DPH Communications