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Jump to full article: Chattanooga (TN) Times & Free Press, 2009-11-19
Author: Emily Bregel
Intro: About one in every five residents of Tennessee and Georgia still uses tobacco, studies show, and that's just too many, health advocate say.
Although there has been progress, smoking rates have gone up and down over the past few years in Tennessee, ranging from 27.7 percent in 2002 to 23.1 percent last year, according to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys that states submit to federal health officials.
The Tennessee smoking rate "is not where it needs to be, and it's certainly not a downward trend, so that's what's sort of disappointing," said Dr. Vince Viscomi, a Chattanooga pulmonologist and president of the Chattanooga and Hamilton County Medical Society.
In Georgia, rates are slowing ticking downward . . .
Culturally, Tennesseans have made "incredible progress" in attitudes toward smoking, said Shelley Courington, executive director of the Campaign for a Healthy and Responsible Tennessee.
"Smoke-free has become the norm here, and who would have thought years ago that that would be possible in Tennessee, in a state where tobacco for years was the No. 1 cash crop?" she said.
Still, low funding has hindered progress, Ms. Courington said. . . .
TENNESSEE QUIT LINE
* 1-800-784-8669
GEORGIA QUIT LINE
* 1-877-270-STOP
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