Personal Injury Litigation

Pennsylvania - New Jersey - New York - Nationwide

By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
January 25, 2011

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A national website ranks the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton metro area as the second-worst place in the nation for smoking because of a high number of people lighting up - a distinction that does not surprise many local health experts.

An article published this week on The Daily Beast ranked places across America using statistics including the number of smokers per capita, the average number of cigarettes smoked per day and the percentage of smokers who tried to quit using a nicotine patch, nicotine gum or a smoking-cessation program. Topping the list is Tulsa, Okla.; coming in third was Memphis, Tenn.

About 23 percent of local metro area residents smoke an average of 17 cigarettes each day, according to information provided by Experian Simmons, a company that compiles consumer behavior data. In the last year, about 26 percent have attempted to quit using nicotine gum, another 27 percent tried to quit using a nicotine patch and only about 9 percent sought the help of a cessation program to quit smoking.

"We know the number of smokers in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties is much higher than elsewhere in the region," said Alice Dalla Palu, executive director of Tobacco Free Northeast.

The reasons for the high number is complex, she and other experts said. Smokers tend to have less income and education and higher stress levels than those who do not smoke - all of which fit the demographics of Northeast Pennsylvania, Ms. Dalla Palu said.

Samuel Lesko, M.D., has studied local tobacco use statistics for years and agrees with Ms. Dalla Palu's assessment.

With a higher-than-average number of smokers comes higher-than-average incidences of smoking-related diseases. Dr. Lesko said. Every year, about 650 people in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wyoming and Wayne counties are diagnosed with lung cancer, according to the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute. About 500 of those cases are fatal.

Lung cancer locally is about 18 percent higher than the national average, Dr. Lesko said.

"We have a history of smoking locally," the medical director and director of research at Northeast Regional Cancer Institute said. "We have to face up to it and do something about it."

He and other experts said great strides have been made to lower the number of smokers in the state over the last decade. The cancer institute, the American Lung Association and other nonprofit groups have developed educational programs on dangers of smoking that target kids who have not yet begun to smoke.

The statewide ban on smoking in most public places passed in 2008 has also helped limit where smokers can indulge and might be an encouragement for people thinking about quitting, Dr. Lesko said. The state has also set up a smoking cessation hotline, 800-QUIT-NOW, and launched an online program to help people quit.

The efforts seem to have paid off. In 2000, about 25 percent of Pennsylvania adults smoked, according to Leslie Best, director of health promotion and risk reduction. In 2009, that number had dropped to 20 percent, she said.

As the number of smokers in Pennsylvania continues to shrink, state Department of Health statistics also show that the number of smokers attempting to quit is on the rise, Ms. Best said. About 52 percent of smokers tried to quit in 2003 and 57 percent tried to quit in 2009, according to data kept by the state Department of Health.

Cigarettes and other tobacco products are highly addictive and it is difficult to quit, said Tony Delonti, a program specialist for the American Lung Association in Scranton.

"It's not just the nicotine," he said. "It's psychological and physiological, too."

Programs that help smokers break the rituals they associate with smoking, like having a cigarette with coffee or alcohol, tend to work better, Mr. Delonti said. But few smokers seek that kind of help, experts said, even though there are several free programs out there.

"A lot of people think it's just a bad habit that they can quit on their own," said Ms. Dalla Palu. "But addiction is very complex and most people need some sort of motivation to really quit."

The state offers free help to smokers trying to quit, said state Department of Health spokeswoman Holli Senior, including a new nicotine replacement therapy program that will begin Monday, Jan. 24.

Local groups, including the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute and Tobacco Free Northeast, also offer information on smoking cessation programs.

"Help with quitting is available," Dr. Lesko said