(EDITOR’S NOTE: As more and more Kentucky communities chose to become smoke free, officials in Maysville and Mason County have yet to make a decision on the issue. Over the next few days we will examine the local impact and opinions about the movement to go smoke free.)
As a health care professional, Dr. Mark Wallingford of Maysville is very well aware of smoking and tobacco use among his patients, and the effect it has on the human body and why it is a hard habit to kick.
“There is little doubt that there is anything positive, from a health standpoint, from tobacco use,” Wallingford said. “The problem is that from an individual standpoint, it is such a horribly addictive drug that for the folks that end up initially smoking, they become horribly addicted to the drug to where it’s rare that they’re able to stop,”
The effects of smoking for the individual is also detrimental to one’s health, as Wallingford cites smoking having horrendous secondary health risks.
“It has significant risk as far as causing increases in vascular disease, lung disease just from the standpoint of COPD and emphysema,” he said. “It increases malignant risk not only from a lung and an airway standpoint but it increases the risk for esophageal cancer and it actually increases the risk of bladder cancer.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year. Included in that number are 41,000 deaths which are caused by secondhand smoke exposure.
In Kentucky, there are 4,830 new cases of lung cancer annually, according to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, with 8,900 adults dying each year from smoking-related diseases.
“Locally, I can tell you from my experience is that if you could take away smoking and its related health impact, I would have significantly less work,” Wallingford said. “It contributes to a huge proportion of what we ultimately deal with in the medical community.”
Wallingford adds that even though the majority of smoking related issues happen to smokers themselves, there is no doubt that there is second impact from tobacco smoke in the form of secondhand smoke.
“For one thing: I have patients that are tobacco allergic,” he said. “Even if you take away the risk to the individual smoking, the problem is them smoking in my patient’s airspace is putting them in medical risk. In addition, if you look at the pediatric population, children who grow up in the homes of smokers, have a significantly increased risk of incidences of respiratory disease, increased risk of asthma, and there is data to back up the fact that there are certainly secondhand ramifications to tobacco smoking.”
When it comes to children in particular, Wallingford said that they are more vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoking, as they have young, developing airways.
“If you want to create trauma to young, developing airways, you are setting those children up for a significantly increased risk for chronic respiratory disease themselves,” he said.
In his own opinion, Wallingford said he would recommend against smoking, however he knows that the addictive nature of the habit makes quitting difficult.
“Nicotine is horribly addictive, just like narcotics are a horribly addictive drug,” he said, “and so the problem is people are addicted. It’s easy to say you need to quit, but it is very difficult for people to quit.”
For those who wish to quit smoking, Wallingford said there are medical approaches to help toward that end. In addition, the Buffalo Trace District Health Department has its Freedom from Smoking program, which is provided by the American Lung Association, that helps smokers overcome tobacco addition.
An additional resource to help smokers includes quitnowky.org, an online resource that the Department for Public Health refers people to get help. Through this resource, there is a text and chat line that will get people in contact with a counselors as well as tobacco treatment specialists.
However, the most important part in quitting smoking is the resolve of the individual to do so.
“On rare occasions people can sort of make up their minds that they’re going to stop smoking and be able to accomplish that; and the reality is that them making up their mind that they’re going to do it is the most important thing they can do,” Wallingford said. “For example, if someone came in to see me and says, ‘hey doc, can you give me something that’ll make me stop smoking?’ The answer is no.”
“If someone comes in and says, ‘listen doc, I want to quit smoking, I’ve got my mind made up, I’m going to work at this but I’ve struggled with this, I’ve tried twice before and I couldn’t do it, do you have something that will help me?’ The answer is yes.”
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