New Year's Eve Marks Promise of Last Cigarette for Many

Friday, December 31, 2010 03:59 AM

Prince George, B.C.- With a new year on the horizon, it is likely quitting smoking will be on the resolution lists for someone in your life.

The Province of B.C. is offering support to those who want to quit, through registration with “QuitNow”.

QuitNow offers smokers a confidential helpline (1 877 455-2233) with information available in 130 languages and an online quit community where professional and peer support is available 24/7. As well, quitters can sign up for email quit tips and text, join QuitNow's Twitter and Facebook page and explore interactive quit tools and resources at: www.quitnow.ca.

According to the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey 2009 data, 14.9 per cent - or approximately 550,000 people in the province of B.C. are smokers. The BC Stats Tobacco Attitudes and Behaviours Survey Report 2008

shows that, at any time, about 70 per cent of smokers wish to quit.

"Each smoker is unique," said Jack Boomer, director of QuitNow Services with the BC Lung Association. "Our overall objective is to provide smokers with tools proven to increase smokers' chances of quit success."

"I quit smoking more than six weeks ago, with a lot of willpower of my own and support from QuitNow," said Eryn Collins, communications officer with Northern Health. "For the first Christmas in a long time, I didn't miss a moment by standing outside in the cold."

As an incentive to quit, B.C. smokers can sign up to participate in the QuitNow and WIN contest, which features cash prizes of more than $20,000. Contest registration is open until Jan. 7, 2011 at 11:59 pm. To be eligible for prizes during the contest period, participants must commit to remain tobacco free from Jan. 8 through to Feb. 4, 2011.

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Posted on Friday, December 31, 2010 03:59 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: alex1212 on December 31 2010 4:33 AM

why dont ya give it a rest !!ya want me to name a whole bunch of other crap that also kills ya !! and no one seems to mention them? govt has a perfect policy towards me .idiots !

Posted by: BCRacer on December 31 2010 5:57 AM

If the government wasn't making so much money off of tobacco they would have made it illegal a long time ago.
But I think this and alcohol are two great places to tax the hell out of.
Both of which we can live quite nicely without.

I no longer smoke but when when I did this was my thought.

Posted by: gus on December 31 2010 6:23 AM

"New Year's Eve Marks Promise of Last Cigarette for Many"

This conjures up images of old movies where the person was standing against the wall waiting for the firing squad to execute him and him being allowed a last cigarette. :-)

Posted by: Andyfreeze on December 31 2010 8:15 AM

A bit of a farce, this quitting smoking issue.
Notice that self-help products like Nicorette cost as much as cigarettes themselves?
As well,the government makes millions off of tobacco taxes,which leaves us to question what they would do if everyone suddenly quit?
My guess is that they would simply whack us with some other tax they invented,to make up for the shortfall!

Posted by: chrislivingdowntown on December 31 2010 9:16 AM

I quit drinking alcohol, coffee and used the blender to mix cool fruit drinks for a year when I quit smoking tobacco. I started to lift weights and ran on the treadmills. Don't let visitors smoke in the house. Pick up a hobby such as learn guitar which I did. This is how I quit.

Posted by: He spoke on December 31 2010 9:18 AM

Andy, your correct with some other tax. The only reason why they promote the stop smoking is to reduce the burden on health care. The government don't really care about your life, your quality of life, its when they see the cost of keeping you alive comes into play, they take corrective actions.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on December 31 2010 9:24 AM

You may be right He spoke.
Actually,it is cheaper for the government to simply let people die...as long as they do it quickly and don't use up healthcare dollars!
Seems they would rather people just do that.
Money...that is all they care about, and everything always comes down to money in the end.
I was recently told that there is a smoking area in the parliament buildings...and it is very crowded most times!
They get a nice smoking room and the bars don't.
How typical!