Alabama launches stop smoking website

Alabama has launched a website to help people stop smoking.

Visitors to alabamaquitnow.com will be offered free advice and counseling, to help them kick the habit. The site will be run by the Alabama Department of Public Health. It will accompany the Alabama Tobacco Helpline. Both the phone line and website will offer free nicotine patches, if users enroll in counseling classes.

Juli Nightingale, service program manager, said: “So far we’ve gotten very good response. We’re hoping this online service will help us reach more people and help them quit smoking.”

“Alabama has one of the higher smoking rates in the United States, and these smoking programs are an effort to try and get people to stop smoking,” Nightingale added.

Alabama is ranked the 10th highest smoking state in America, with 22% of adults smoking. The number one spot goes to West Virginia, where over 26% of adults are smokers. Utah has the lowest number of smokers with just 9%.

Smoking is the leading cause of premature death in America. By stopping smoking, fatal conditions such as lung cancer and cardiovascular disease can be avoided. You can stop smoking with nicotine patches or drugs such as Champix.

In Canada there have recently been calls for the government to fund stop smoking drugs. The US government has just set up a Medicare Smoking Cessation Program to support people who are trying to kick the habit. Citizens covered by the Medicare insurance scheme will now have access to free stop smoking assistance, including counselling, from the government.

Since 1964, there have been more than 12 million deaths attributed to smoking in the US, according to the American Cancer Society. The American Cancer Society also reports that half of all people who do not stop smoking will die from their habit.