3 counties to share anti-smoking funds

Smoking in the tri-county area is higher than Ohio's average.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The health departments in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties will share $236,250 to continue to fight tobacco.
The counties have been providing programs for three years to help people quit or never start.
The new funding will continue programs until the end of 2006, said Joseph R. Mazzola, a program project manager with the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation.
The foundation, which is a state agency, distributes money from a settlement by 46 states with tobacco companies. It funds health programs through a competitive process, Mazzola said.
Some 24 grants statewide were extended for programs that all received money in the first round of state funding in 2002. Mazzola said the three local counties have collectively received about $900,000.
State Rep. Charles Blasdel of East Liverpool, R-1st, presented a mock check Monday at the YWCA of Salem to area health officials.
Blasdel praised the three departments, saying their funding extension, "speaks volumes to the work they are doing."
Robert Morehead, the Columbiana County Health commissioner, said the battle against smoking hit close to home.
"My mother and aunt died of cancer," said Morehead, who added that he had battled skin cancer.
School programs
Money from the program helps to fund educational programs in eight of Columbiana County's 11 school districts.
New funding, Morehead said, "Will help me stamp out smoking in Columbiana County."
A study by the health departments shows that 26.1 percent of residents in the three counties are smokers. The state average is 25.8 percent. The national average is about 21 percent.
No one is sure why the three counties have a higher percentage of smokers, but officials have a simple message: Quit smoking.
Statewide, the settlement also funds the free Ohio Tobacco Quit Line that will provide support and advice from a specialist, a personalized plan for quitting, self-help materials, and information about medications.
Health officials say that people who use the quit line are five times likely to quit than those who try to quit by themselves.
Mazzola added that some people may even quality for free nicotine patches used to help wean people off tobacco products.
Programs to help people quit smoking are also available in each of the three local counties.
Difficult to quit
Heather Krause, a community health education specialist with the Mahoning County Board of Health, said that ultimately, everyone uses a different method to quit. People should combine methods that work for them, but quitting is not easy.
"Addiction to nicotine is worse than any of the street drugs," she added.
Some of the new funds will be used for an anti-smoking billboard campaign.
Blasdel said the key is to make sure children don't start using tobacco.
County health workers are starting to move beyond school programs. They said they are taking their prevention message to children in preschool and day-care programs.
wilkinson@vindy.com
XFor more information, call the Ohio Tobacco Quit Line at (800) 784-8669, or visit standohio.org