Quitting tobacco is a topic you hear a great deal about. If you are a tobacco user, you may be thinking about quitting or have someone who cares about you, asking you to quit.
By now, almost everyone has heard or read about serious health issues related to tobacco use. Tobacco use affects both the user as well as those around the tobacco smoke. Tobacco products are more potent now than ever before. Advertisements offering safer alternatives are misleading, at best.
Tobacco users often want to quit, but because of past choices the addiction to nicotine has a hold on them. These choices made in the past force the brain to keep asking for more nicotine brought by the tobacco delivery system, affecting the users present and future health. As a tobacco user, your present and future can be better tobacco-free, but you must make that decision to quit on your own. You have to want better health and freedom from the grip that tobacco exerts. The health decision is yours.
The New York State Smokers’ Quitline is available for any New York State resident to access. Call 1-866-NYQUITS (1-866-697-8487) to speak with a Quitline counselor, listen to the “quit tip of the day” or possibly receive Nicotine Replacement Therapy. Also, Yates County Public Health offers tobacco cessation classes. Groups and individuals may contact the quit specialists for help. Call Yates County Public Health at 315-536-5160 or toll free at 1-866-212-5160 Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and ask to speak with the tobacco cessation specialists for assistance.
Believe in a “healthier lifestyle and healthier choices…”.
Kathy Swarthout
Yates County Public Health
