Tag Archives: smoking

How to quit smoking

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Recently the Washington State Department of Health started running these commercials about real people who are writing letters to themselves, starting with “Dear Me…” and stating what’s going on in their lives and why smoking is slowing them down. The whole concept is as simple as this:

No one can make me quit but me.

This is so true. I’m one of the lucky ones. As an ex smoker of about 20+ years, at the height of my smoking, I was smoking about 2 packs a day. I quit because I got the flu and every time I tried to smoke a cigarette, I couldn’t stop coughing. So eventually after a week of being sick, I just didn’t smoke anymore. But honestly, I know how hard it is to quit because I tried. I’ve tried so many times I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve tried. I’m so glad I did.

My dad has emphysema and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). So just watching my dad carry around an oxygen tank everywhere he goes is reminder enough to why it’s bad to smoke. Smoking is bad. But you know, no one can make you quit but you. Maybe you should write a letter to yourself and be objective about it and say what you’ve been wanting to say all this time. Maybe you’ll realize how much you should be quitting.

If you want to see one of the commercials, the video is after the bump. I think this one Really hit close to home.

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Graphic labels for cigarette boxes

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The Federal drug regulators apparently revealed the 36 graphic labels for cigarette boxes. I’ve seen the three that are shown on the NY times story, and they’re pretty “graphic”, but honestly I don’t think it’ll work. Well, that’s not true. It might work on some people, but as an ex-smoker, I don’t Really think it’ll work on a smoker like me.

When I smoked so long ago, (I was a 2 pack a day smoker for about 20 years) I was hardcore. I might have looked at the packaging just to make sure it was my brand of cigarettes, but honestly, I didn’t read anything on it. It was recognizable just by the color and the design. I didn’t pay attention to what it said on there. Honestly, I didn’t even know what the Surgeon General warning ever said except “it’s bad for your health”.

I think this might be a big waste of time, and if I turn out to be wrong, it will be a pleasant surprise. This could be another attempt to make the cigarette companies waste money by the government. Yeah, I know, this is just conspiracy theory speaking, but you just never know, right? Plus it makes it a much more interesting story.

I will admit, however that the idea of purposely placing the graphic label on the top where it would definitely be seen in the stores is a nice touch. But again, I think most people will ignore this. Most smokers are people of habit. They will always go to the same place to buy their cigarettes. I know, because when I went to buy my cigarettes at the local gas station, the girls who worked there knew me on sight and always pulled two packs down for me. I never looked at the display case. This is another reason why I think it will fail.

So what do I propose to do? Well, to be honest, I think they should just keep taxing the cigarettes. Make them even more expensive. I think there are a lot of smokers out there who would make the attempt to quit if they could no longer afford their smokes. Another idea would be to do a huge billboard campaign. Perhaps an even more aggressive anti-smoking campaign on television. Use celebrity power. All this usually helps!

What’s your opinion? I’ve set up a poll just to see what you think of these ads.

Do you think the graphic labels on cigarette boxes will help smokers quit smoking?

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If you smoke, you can't work here

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CigarettesHave any of you heard of this? ocB alerted me to this phenomenon. There are apparently companies out there that are screening people for smoking. That’s right. They’re testing to see if they have nicotine in their system. Apparently, they’re concerned their health benefits will go up, and they want to keep the costs low. I’d like to think that they want to provide a clean environment for their workers, and don’t wish to endanger them, but I’m pretty sure (and ocB assures me) it’s because they want to keep the health costs down.

There is also the mentality that a non-smoker will not take as many breaks as a smoker. Then on top of that, they are saying that the mentality of a smoker could be worse than that of a non-smoker. Meaning of course, if the smoker doesn’t get to smoke, they get Really agitated. While I can’t say this never happens to me when I did smoke, I have to admit that when I did smoke, I took a lot more breaks. But I’m not defending the reasoning here. I’m just stating a fact. Are non-smokers more productive than smokers? I doubt it. Non-smokers just find other ways to pass time. That’s my opinion.

What’s your opinion? I personally don’t care either way. I think the reasons might be a bit questionable. It could go either way. So I’m presenting you with a poll! What do you think?

Cake or Pie?

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