Over the past 10 years, smoking in New York has significantly decreased and currently only 15.5 percent of adults in New York smoke. While this is good news, it still is not great. Tobacco use continues to be the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and more than 25,000 New Yorkers die every year from smoking.
The large reduction over the past years has been in large part to the New York State Department of Health Tobacco Control program. The NYTCP began in January 2000 and implements evidence-based and promising strategies to prevent and reduce tobacco use. Since 2000, the program has effectively implemented a strong clean indoor air law, maintained support for high tobacco taxes to keep the price of tobacco high, and worked to increase access to cessation services and motivate smokers to try to quit. As a result of these efforts, youth and adult smoking rates are at their lowest levels on record.
There are four components of the NYTCP, and we are very lucky to have all four components in our community. The components include:
• The Cayuga County Tobacco Free Partnership, which is considered a community partnership component. Community partnerships work to change the community environment to support the tobacco-free norm. Partnerships engage local stakeholders, educate community leaders and the public, and mobilize the community to strengthen tobacco-related policies to restrict the use, promotion and availability of tobacco products in stores and limit exposure to secondhand smoke.
• The St. Joseph Cessation Center, which is the cessation center component, covers Onondaga, Oswego and Cayuga counties. Cessation centers work with health care organizations and providers to implement systems to screen patients for tobacco use and prompt providers to offer advice and assistance to quit. They also train instructors to become cessation counselors.
• Reality Check, the youth action component, also covers Onondaga, Oswego and Cayuga counties. Youth action programs train youth to become activists in the movement to change community norms regarding tobacco use. These programs engage middle school- and high school-aged youth in activities aimed at deglamorizing and de-normalizing tobacco use in their communities. In Cayuga County, we have four programs in Southern Cayuga, Moravia, Auburn and Cato.
• The fourth and final component is available to all New York state residents; it is the New York State Smokers’ Quitline.
These are all invaluable programs to our community, as the current smoking rate in Cayuga County of 22 percent is much higher than the state average.
We all know that tobacco use is harmful, but we must remember that it is an addiction, and oftentimes people become hooked in their teens. Ninety percent of smokers start at or before the age of 18. The primary reason that most teens start smoking is because of the skillful marketing strategies of the tobacco industry: placing ads near eye level of youth, large and appealing displays at the counter, and making products similar to candy. And these strategies work. It is estimated that more than 22,000 kids become new smokers every year in New York state.
