Health

MN Smoking Ban Drives More Smokers To Try Quitting

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― Just over two months since a statewide smoking ban took effect, a growing number of Minnesotans are trying to kick the habit.
  
Minnesota's two largest health plans and the anti-tobacco organization ClearWay say they've seen a sharp spike in the number of people turning to nicotine replacement products and smoking cessation counseling programs since the ban took effect Oct. 1.
  
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota said that between September and October enrollment in its telephone counseling service jumped to 525, an increase of 43 percent.
  
And compared with October 2006, the number of over-the-counter products like the patch and nicotine gum Blue Cross has provided its members tripled to a total of 10,000 claims.
  
"It's doing what we like it to do," said Marc Manley, medical director for population health at Blue Cross. "Helping people decide to quit."
  
The state's No. 2 health plan, Medica, said it has seen a 40 percent increase in the number of members seeking counseling to quit.
  
And ClearWay Minnesota, which provides a variety of quit-smoking programs, reports similar trends. It said 693 people enrolled in its web-based program in October, up 8 percent from the same month a year earlier. Twenty-seven employers have asked ClearWay to supply an onsite smoking counselor in January to help their workers quit, compared with 76 companies in all of 2007, said Michael Sheldon, spokesman for ClearWay.
  
Minnesota is among 22 states that have outlawed smoking in all workplaces, including restaurants and bars. Health and anti-tobacco activists promoted it as a way to protect workers, children, and nonsmokers from secondhand smoke.
  
But experts have long asserted that smoking bans not only provide a powerful inspiration for people to quit, they make it easier to succeed.
  
The experts say it's too soon to say if the ban will cut smoking rates. Quitting takes months, and many attempts. Both Clearway and Blue Cross said that about a third of the people who sign up for counseling services succeed in quitting.
  
But Manley predicted that Minnesota's ban could eventually reduce the smoking rate by 1 or 2 percent, depending on whether it's followed by increases in cigarette taxes and marketing support for smoking cessation programs.
  
Manley pointed to New York City, which raised the price of cigarettes, banned smoking and heavily advertised smoking cessation services all at the same time. Smoking rates there dropped 11 percent in two years, he said.
  
"That is the perfect storm," Manley said. "They did all three things at the same time."

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)