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• More Smokers Seek Help With Quitting Since Latest Cigarette Tax Took Effect  

"It's another vice I have to give up to survive, not only health-wise, but financially," explained Mr. Alderman, 58, who said he lives in a single-room-occupancy building in Times Square and depends on federal disability payments and food stamps.

Clients like Mr. Alderman at smoking-cessation programs around the city have been citing the $1.25 tax increase that took effect June 3 as their motivation for quitting, and several programs have seen their numbers balloon in the weeks since.

Tax increases are the most effective measure known to reduce demand for tobacco, according to reports published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and The British Medical Journal. Young people and poor people are most responsive to price changes, the research shows.

Requests to New York City's 311 line for advice on quitting tripled during the week of June 2, with 2,700 calls this year compared with 850 calls during the same period in 2007. Calls to the New York State Smokers' Quitline -- including those transferred from 311 -- quadrupled, to 9,750 from 2,295 a year ago.

"It was a huge surge," . . .

"Many people need a more sustained effort," said Barbara Warren, the director for research and planning at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Manhattan, where she started a smoking-cessation program in 1994. "The quitline is an essential part of the continuum. But it demands a certain degree of self-direction and follow-through. Other people need more than that."

Dr. Warren said community-based group programs that meet continuously for several weeks are more successful

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