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To Quit Nicotine, Get Support

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By GEOFF FOX

gfox@tampatrib.com

Published: January 1, 2009

HUDSON - It wasn't just a New Year's resolution. Dave Melden seriously wanted to quit smoking.

The former New Port Richey fire chief already had a pulmonary deficiency in his lungs caused by a 1980 chemical fire. And at 72, he and wife Leona were raising their 8-year-old great-grandson, Dominic.

Melden wanted to see Dominic grow up, so he joined a quit-smoking support group offered by the Pasco County Health Department. For almost a year, the group helped Melden, who had started smoking as a 13-year-old in Bay City, Mich., extinguish the urge to inhale tar and nicotine into his damaged lungs.

Unfortunately for Melden, it didn't last.

"I fell out of the group," he said this week. "If you don't stay in a support group continuously, I think your failure rate is at a higher percentage. I didn't have the time to stay in the group, but I would recommend to anybody not to quit the support group."

The county's Monday Quit Smoking Support Group has been meeting for a little more than a year, said tobacco prevention specialist Lisa Sloan. More than 100 people have attended the free program since its inception.

Sloan didn't have official statistics on how many people have stayed cigarette-free after quitting through the program, but she said the group has been popular among those who have tried it.

"You're going to have about a 25 percent success rate with any program, but with this program you double those odds with nicotine-replacement therapy," Sloan said. "We advocate that people go to a physician for Zyban and Chantix, which are helpful in cessation.

"Then you still come to the group for added support. The people who come to the group love it and say they couldn't quit without it. The people who have an easy time quitting don't need our group. But for most people it is a strong addiction and the more layers of support, the more success they're going to have."

Quitting After 50 Years

Ron McCarthy, who smoked for about 50 years, said he and his wife subscribe wholeheartedly to the county's program - and Sloan's methods.

"Through understanding the smoker's mind and the input from the group, it works great," he said. "They don't go to the point like some programs where they show burned-out lungs and everything. They leave it to the individual, based on how better you feel without that nasty habit following you around."

A non-smoker for almost six months, McCarthy, 69, of New Port Richey, said he is confident that he taken his last puff of a Marlboro 100. He said he tried to stop smoking at least 10 times before entering the county's program.

"What's different this time is that my wife and I both love to be active outside," he said. "We like to play tennis and do outside exercising and stuff. We were at the point where if we are going to continue to enjoy life the way we want to we had to get off" cigarettes.

Some enjoy smoking so much that they'll never seriously consider stamping out their habit.

Meet John Vazquez, owner of JV's Starters and Alternators in Dade City.

Vazquez, 55, survived a quintuple bypass surgery about five years ago, but still smokes about a pack and a half of Benson & Hedges menthol cigarettes a day.

"I never had a heart attack," he said. "They said it was related to cholesterol. I have that kind of blood that can cause" heart disease.

Vazquez said he stopped smoking when he went in for surgery. He stayed in the hospital for two weeks.

"When I got out of the hospital, coughing was a real concern," he said. "If you coughed, your chest hurt real bad, so smoking was not the thing to do. After about six weeks, I started back. One cigarette here and there until I was back to a pack and half a day."

He isn't likely to quit soon.

"Other than the heart surgery I'm pretty healthy - no breathing disabilities or anything like that," he said. "I don't see where smoking has been a major problem in my life. As far as a health issue, I probably have more of a chance dying on my motorcycle or getting killed in my car than directly due to smoking cigarettes."

'I Do Relax After A Cigarette'

Melden, the former fire chief, said he thinks he is on borrowed time, anyway. Because of damage caused by the chemical fire, he said he should have been dead 20 years ago.

He said he "fell out" of the county's quit-smoking group after immersing himself in ministries for the homeless. Plus, there were tense family issues.

"I was thinking, 'Why are there all these things that I can't control?'

" he said.

And even at 72, he said, there was still peer pressure.

"The key element in my relapse was the tension," he said. "I would get nervous and my stomach would get all in knots, like a depression-type thing. One day I'll go back to quitting, but it's not in my immediate agenda because of all the demands I have.

"I do relax after a cigarette, to be honest. I'll have a cigarette and a cup of coffee or a Dr Pepper and it helps me unwind. You have to have that desire to quit. If not, you won't be successful.

"I had it, but I lost it."

TOP 10 REASONS TO QUIT

Need a reason to quit smoking? The Pasco County Health Department offers these 10:

1. For your health. Tobacco can harm nearly every organ in your body and smoking causes more than 13 major diseases.

2. For your family's health. Secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Secondhand smoke has twice the tar and five times more carbon monoxide than the smoker inhales.

3. For your future family. Recent studies have demonstrated a link between smoking and infertility for both women and men.

4. For the inconvenience of it. It's becoming more difficult to light up. Florida prohibits smoking in workplaces, restaurants, airports, airplanes and many other public spaces.

5. For the money. The price you pay helps support the cost of tobacco lawyers, marketing, researchers and public relations campaigns. Smokers spend more on dry cleaning, health insurance and life insurance.

6. Help is just a phone call away. The state established a toll-free number, 1-877-822-6669, that connects smokers to the Quit Line, which provides telephone counseling services, nicotine replacement therapy and referrals to community services.

7. Medications can help you quit.

8. To set a good example. Parents who smoke are more likely to have children who smoke.

9. To prevent house fires. According to the National Fire Protection Association, cigarettes are the leading cause of fatal fires in the United States.

10. For the health of your pets. Cats living with smokers are twice as likely to develop malignant lymphoma, while dogs living in a smoking household are susceptible to lung cancer, and cancers of the nose and sinus area.

Source: Pasco County Health Department
QUIT SMOKING

For information about the Pasco County Health Department's Monday Quit Smoking Support Group, call (727) 861-5250, Ext. 279.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613.

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