(SAN JOSE, MAY 31, 2005) In honor of World No Tobacco Day, the San Jose Tobacco-Free Collaborative launched a campaign to urge healthcare professionals to take an active role in encouraging their patients who use tobacco to quit. Collaborative members gathered at O’Connor Hospital today, where they picked up posters and stickers to deliver to area medical offices that remind healthcare professionals to talk to their patients and patients to talk to their healthcare providers about tobacco use.

World No Tobacco Day is held every year on May 31 to call worldwide attention to the impact of tobacco use on public health and the need to reduce tobacco dependence. This year’s theme is “Healthcare Professionals and Tobacco Control.”

“Doctors are pressured for time and sometimes think their patients already know smoking is harmful,” said Margo Sidener, executive director of the American Lung Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties, lead agency for the Tobacco-Free Collaborative. “But studies show smokers are much more likely to quit when counseled by their doctor or other healthcare professional.”

Healthcare providers should routinely ask patients about tobacco consumption and, using evidence-based approaches and best practices – give advice about quitting smoking and ensure appropriate follow up with cessation goals.

Studies show that as little as three minutes of physician intervention with a patient who uses tobacco can increase that person’s chances of quitting by 50 percent.

“Patients often rationalize that if smoking was really putting their health at risk, certainly their doctors would mention it,” Sidener said. “When healthcare professionals don’t talk to their patients who smoke about quitting, they are silently indicating that tobacco use is not a major health concern.”

A study conducted last year for the American Lung Association confirmed that smokers may not be getting the message about the serious health risks and early warning signs. While more than half of those surveyed (55 percent) experienced at least one of the symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) a minimum of once a week, nearly two-thirds of smokers (64 percent) were not concerned about developing COPD, America’s fourth-leading cause of death.

Tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death and disease in this country, killing more than 440,000 Americans every year. That’s more than AIDS, alcohol, illegal drugs, car accidents, murders and suicides – COMBINED.

Smoking is believed to cause 87 percent of all cases of lung cancer and is a contributing factor in as many as 30 percent of all cancer deaths. It causes 90 percent of COPD cases and is a major cause of coronary artery disease and stroke.

Healthcare professionals also need to be role models when it comes to tobacco use and maintain smoke-free lifestyles themselves. The American Lung Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties is offering a special smoking cessation program for healthcare professionals in July.

“Healthcare providers often shy away from quit-smoking programs because they are embarrassed to reveal in a group setting they are a doctor or nurse who smokes,” Sidener said. “The class in July is just for healthcare professionals, so they will be with their peers.”
The Collaborative developed two different posters: one to put up in the back office that reminds doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to talk to patients about their tobacco use and another for the waiting room that encourages patients to talk to their healthcare providers about their tobacco use. The stickers read “Still Smoking?” and are to put on the medical files of patients who use tobacco to remind healthcare professionals to follow up with them.

The Tobacco-Free Collaborative is a network of community agencies dedicated to reducing the impact of tobacco use and addiction in San Jose. The Collaborative is funded by a grant from San Jose’s Healthy Neighborhoods Venture Fund and members offer a full range of tobacco use prevention, education and quit-smoking programs that are culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate. Most services are free of charge and open to all San Jose residents.

For more information, call 408.998.5866 or visit www.tobaccofreesj.org.

Collaborative members include: American Lung Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties (lead agency); American Cancer Society; Asian American Recovery Services, Inc.; Children’s Musical Theater San Jose; City of San Jose Healthy Neighborhoods Venture Fund; Deaf Counseling Advocacy and Referral Agency; InnVision of Santa Clara Valley; NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley; National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, NCADD in the Silicon Valley; Pathway Society, Inc.; Rosa Elena Childcare Center; San Jose Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement; San Jose First Community Services; San Jose Holiday Parade; San Jose Jazz Society; San Jose Police Department; Santa Clara County Tobacco Prevention and Education; Stroke Awareness Foundation; YMCA of Santa Clara Valley; and YWCA in Santa Clara Valley.

# # #

Tobacco-Free Collaborative
1469 Park Ave.
San Jose, CA 95126
408.998.5866

© 2005 All Rights Reserved