ND1101115

Title: Kentucky Program Urges Smokers to Go Smokeless

Description: Switch and Quit campaign hopes the transition to smokeless tobacco will be more effective than nicotine patches in ultimately bringing smoking rates down.

Page Content:

OWENSBORO, KY ? A new smoking cessation program in Kentucky is not urging smokers to quit, but rather switch to smoke-free tobacco, the Associated Press reports.

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The James Graham Brown Cancer Center and the University of Louisville have launched a ?Switch and Quit? campaign, supported by print, radio, billboard and other advertising methods ?to urge smokers to swap their cigarettes for smokeless tobacco and other products that do not deliver nicotine by smoke,? the Associated Press said.

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Program supporters maintain smokers who transition to smokeless tobacco are more likely to give up cigarettes than those who adopt more popular quitting methods like nicotine patches. Additionally, they cited smokeless tobacco?s lower disease risk.

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?We need something that works better than what we have,? said Dr. Donald Miller, an oncologist and director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center. ?This is as reasonable a scientific hypothesis as anybody has come up with and it needs to be tried.?

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Brad Rodu directs the Switch and Quit program, and he said he analyzed a 200 National Health Interview Survey that showed male smokers who switched to smokeless tobacco were more likely to quit smoking than those who used nicotine patches or gum.

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?Americans are largely misinformed about the relative risks. They think smokeless tobacco is just as dangerous,? Rodu said. ?This level of misinformation is an enormous barrier to actually accomplishing tobacco-harm reduction because if people believe that the products have equal risk, there's not a real incentive.?

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Content Subject: Marketing/Merchandising

Formatted Article Date: November 1, 2011

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