Local health experts say more people are seeking help from stop-smoking hot lines like “1-800-NO-BUTTS,” which could stem from the recent 62-cent hike on cigarettes, according to a published report.
After the federal tax came into effect on April 1st, an increase in calls to phone lines at Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California region rose from 100 calls per week to about 400 – that’s an increase of 25percent to the “NO BUTTS” hot line from last year, according to Susan Abram at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
This year, California’s tobacco control program is celebrating its 20th anniversary of helping people prevent disease and death.
“California’s successful tobacco control efforts have worked to change the social norms around the use of tobacco to create an environment in which tobacco is less acceptable,” Kimberly Belsh, secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency said in a statement.
Local
And while overall adult smoking rates have declined from 22.7percent of all residents in 1998 to 13.3percent in 2008, smoking is still attractive to many youth and a lack of funding in California for tobacco-control programs are a challenge.
