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TRY, TRY, TRY AGAIN RECOMMENDED FOR THOSE TRYING TO QUIT

Over a decade, some 2,000 daily have succeeded in Britain

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again. That’s the recommended course of action for smokers who have made the decision to break the habit.

"Stopping smoking is a process, not an event, says a report entitled "helping Smokers Stop" by Dr Martin Raw, King’s College School of Medicine and Dentistry, London,

The report was presented at the 1^st European Conference on Tobacco Policy in Madrid under the sponsorship of the government of Spain, the Commission of the European Communities and the World Health Organization.

The "process starts with attitude change, brought about by health education of all kinds, and then proceeds to behaviour change," the report explains. In effect, a smoker first declares "It might be a good idea to stop," then "I ought to stop," followed by "I will try to stop," and finally "I will stop."

In Britain alone some 2,000 people a day over the last decade have tried and succeeded a fact that is described as "behaviour change on an extraordinary and impressive scale."

The process of quitting "takes many years in a lot of smokers," the report concedes. The experience of health authorities is that many smokers stop, relapse, stop again, and relapse again before they finally break the habit. Failure advances the process.

Some smokers succeed by themselves, some through courses, and some with aids or through smokers’ clinics.

However, provided the smoker is determined to quit, most cessation methods will help, but "no method magically transforms smokers into non-smokers, irrespective of their wishes," the report declares. ‘If you really don’t want to stop, no method will succeed.

Experts gauge success rates by the percentage of smokers who stop after a cessation course and who are still not smoking a year later. This is verifiable through the use of a carbon monoxide analyzer.

The chances of success are rated best in a course at places of work because smokers can give each other "support and encouragement beyond the limits of group sessions."

Among aids recommended to help a smoker quit are tablets that contain a nicotine substitute, nicotine chewing gum, hypnosis and acupuncture.

Nicotine chewing gum is available in most countries only by prescription, but in Gibraltar, Israel, Malta, Switzerland and Turkey it is available over the counter. "It is relatively easy to use, "the report points out though doctors need to be trained how to prescribe the gum to patients.

"Hypnosis can work if smokers want it to," the report says. "It is not harmful. The same applies to acupuncture."

For heavily addicted smokers, treatment at special clinics "may represent their best chance of stopping." According to the report, "these smokers tend to be older, and to smoke more, and therefore be at higher risk."

Among countries cited where such clinics exist are Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. "It costs less to help heavy smokers stop than to treat their smoking-related diseases, the report points out in a reference to the cost-benefit ratio for health services.

Not recommended as an aid to cessation are filter and low tar cigarettes "because smokers tend to smoke in such a way as to maintain a steady blood nicotine level." In effect, smokers of these cigarettes inhale more, taking in as much nicotine and tar as with regular cigarettes.

"There is no safe way of smoking," the report asserts. And, it warns, "preventing tomorrow’s epidemic by persuading children not to start smoking is now an urgent priority. All means available must be used to reduce the pressure on children not to take up smoking."