Buncombe County Government North Carolina
Buncombe County Government North Carolina

departments & agencies

Health Promotion / Tobacco prevention and cessation

257 Biltmore Ave.
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 250-6985

Buncombe County Health Center works to improve the health of county residents by promoting tobacco-free lifestyles and smoke-free public places.
The Tobacco Control Program is managed through Project ASSIST Tobacco Prevention Coalition, a local partnership of community members and agencies working together toward the same goals:

  • To reduce tobacco use among both youth and adults, and
  • To promote public health policies that reduce the public’s exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

It's easy to learn about Project ASSIST!  Just call us at 828-250-5048.

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Tobacco Facts:

Tobacco is the only product that, when taken as recommended, kills people.
Link bullets below to correct sections on this page.

Tobacco Programs

  1. Advocacy Initiatives
  2. Brief Cessation Counseling
  3. Quit Smoking Resources
  4. Smoke-free Dining in Buncombe County
  5. Working Smoke Free in Buncombe County

Other Info

  1. Links
  2. Contact Info

Benefits of Quitting Smoking

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When smokers quit - health benefits over time

  1. 20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drop.
  2. 12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
  3. 2 weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.
  4. 1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.
  5. 1 year after quitting: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.
  6. 5 years after quitting: Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5 to 15 years after quitting.
  7. 10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker's. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decrease.
  8. 15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker's.

Source:  American Cancer Society

Financial Costs of Tobacco in North Carolina

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  • A pack of cigarettes costs an average of $3.68 per pack in North Carolina.
  • A person who smokes a pack of cigarettes per day, spends at least $1,343 per year on cigarettes.
  • Annual health care expenditures in North Carolina directly caused by tobacco use are $2.46 billion.
  1. The portion covered by the state Medicaid program is $769 million.
  2. North Carolina residents’ pay $589 per household in taxes for government costs from smoking-caused illnesses.
  • Smoking-caused health costs and productivity losses per pack sold in North Carolina is $7.18.

These amounts do not include health costs caused by exposure to secondhand smoke, smoking-caused fires, spit tobacco use, or cigar and pipe smoking.
Other non-health costs caused by tobacco use include:

  • Direct residential and commercial property losses from smoking-caused fires (more than $500 million nationwide).
  • Extra cleaning and maintenance costs made necessary by tobacco smoke and litter (about $4+ billion nationwide for commercial establishments alone).
  • Additional productivity losses from
  • smoking-caused work absences
  • smoking breaks
  • on-the-job performance declines
  • early termination of employment caused by smoking-caused disability or illness

Increasing Tobacco Tax Protects Children and Others

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  1. Raising North Carolina's cigarette tax to 75-cents will protect North Carolina’s children from the addictive and deadly habit of smoking. 
  2. Every 10% increase in the cost of a pack of cigarettes results in a decrease of 7% in the number of youth who begin to smoke.
  3. Of the 24,000 kids in NC who take up smoking each year, about 8,200 will go on to die early due to smoking-related disease such as lung cancer, heart disease & stroke. 
  4. The proven, most effective way to reduce youth smoking is to increase the cost of cigarettes.
  5. Currently 15% of pregnant women in North Carolina are smokers, which threatens the health and life of both the mother and baby.
  6. With a 75-cent increase in the cigarette price, there will be a 17.5% decrease in the number of pregnant North Carolina women who smoke.
  7. An increase in NC’s cigarette tax would not affect NC farmers, as their market is nationwide and worldwide.
  8. A 75-cent cigarette tax increase is estimated to reduce NC’s adult cigarette consumption by about 10%. Such a reduction in use would only reduce the overall demand for all American-grown flue-cured tobacco by about one tenth of one percent.
  9. Raising cigarette taxes helps lower-income smokers.
  10. Lower-income people suffer more than others from smoking-caused disease, disability, death, and costs. 
  11. Raising cigarette taxes will help lower-income smokers to quit and cutback, which will reduce smoking-caused injury more sharply.
  12. Lower-income people are more likely to quit because of tax increases than higher income smokers.
  • Raising the price of tobacco through excise tax, not only protects children and adults including pregnant women, but it raises significant revenue for crucial programs.

Second-Hand Smoke

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Tobacco Facts for Men

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  • The health benefits of quitting smoking far outweigh any risks from weight gain.
  • Smoking may reduce fertility and lead to impotence among men.
  • Smokers heal slower from injuries than nonsmokers.
  • Smokeless tobacco (spit tobacco) users are up to 50 times more likely to get oral cancer than non-users.
  • Spit tobacco causes leukoplakia, a disease of the mouth described as white patches and oral lesions on the cheeks, gums, and/or tongue.
  • Like cigarettes, cigars contain the same toxic and cancer-causing compounds.
  • Cigar smokers experience higher rates of lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than non-smokers.
  • Cigar smokers can spend up to an hour smoking a single cigar that can contain as much tobacco as a pack of cigarettes.

 

Tobacco Facts for Women

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  • Women who smoke and use oral birth control are up to 40 times more likely to have a heart attack than women who neither smoke nor use birth control.
  • The risk of developing lung cancer is 13 times higher for women who smoke compared to lifelong non-smokers.
  • Smoking reduces a woman’s fertility.
  • Women have a more difficult time quitting smoking than men, and have lower cessation rates.
  • The health benefits of quitting smoking far outweigh any risks from weight gain.
  • In the 1980’s, lung cancer overtook breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death of women. Since 1950, lung cancer death rates for women have increased 600%.

Tobacco Facts for Teens

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  • Nearly every adult who smokes (almost 90 percent) took their first puff at or before the age of 18, which means that almost all smokers started smoking in their teens.
  • The average age when someone tries tobacco for the first time is 13.  As many as half of the kids who experiment become regular smokers.
  • Nearly 4 out of 10 high school teens in western North Carolina use some form of tobacco.
  • Every year in North Carolina, there are 52,700 kids under 18 who try cigarettes for the first time.  About 24,000 of those kids become new, daily smokers each year.
  • Most adolescents who smoke are addicted to nicotine.  When young people try to quit smoking, they experience withdrawal symptoms very similar to those experienced by adults.
  • More than 5 million children living today will die prematurely because of a decision they will make as teens…the decision to smoke cigarettes.

Tobacco Facts for Pregnancy

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  1. When a pregnant woman smokes, so does her baby.  Smokers take in poisons such as nicotine and carbon monoxide (the same gas that comes out of a car's exhaust pipe). These poisons keep the unborn baby from getting the food and oxygen needed to grow.
  2. When a pregnant woman smokes, nothing can protect her baby from danger.
  • If a woman smokes during pregnancy she takes a big chance with her baby's health. There is a greater chance that she will lose the baby during pregnancy. The baby could also be born too early, before the lungs are ready, so the baby will have trouble breathing.
  • Mothers who smoke while pregnant are more likely to have their babies die of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).
  • When a breast feeding mother smokes, the baby drinks the poison in her breast milk.

Advocacy Initiatives

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Everyone has the right to breathe clean air.  If you would like to support a smoke-free North Carolina by signing a resolution, check out these links.

Brief Cessation Counseling

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AAR (Ask, Advise, Refer)

What You Can Do In 2 Minutes or Less: 
Three simple steps to tobacco cessation counseling

Brief cessation counseling by a health care provider increases the chances that a patient will choose to quit using tobacco.

AAR is a very brief intervention that health care and dental care providers can use to help patients to quit smoking and/or to quit using smokeless tobacco.  

  • Ask: Ask patients at each visit:  “Do you use tobacco?”
    • Potential answers:
      • Yes
      • No
      • Former
      • Never
  • Advise: Encourage tobacco users to quit. Give a brief, strong personalized message for quitting.  Example: “Mr./Ms. Jones, quitting is the single best thing you can do for your health.  It is especially important for you to do now because….”
  • Refer: Refer patients (who are ready to quit within 30 days) to the NC Quitline via a fax referral form.
  •  Cessation medications increase success.  Discuss cessation medications with tobacco users.  Medications, combined with cessation support, double your patient’s chances of quitting.

The NC Tobacco Use Quitline offers free and confidential phone calls for all North Carolinians 8 am – midnight daily.

To schedule a brief training on AAR cessation intervention for your health care team, please contact Project ASSIST at 828-250-5048.

Quit Smoking Resources

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Help is available for anyone who would like to quit smoking or quit using spit tobacco.

We can give information on:

  1. Medicines that can help to quit smoking or using tobacco.
  2. Programs offered in the community to help quit smoking.
  3. The NC Tobacco Use Quitline: a free and confidential phone call available 8 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.

Buncombe County Health Center also helps pregnant women to quit smoking. OB (pregnancy) patients can be enrolled in the “Be Smoke Free for You and Your Baby” program through their doctor or midwife’s office. The program offers help to make a plan to quit smoking. For more information about “Be Smoke Free” program, call 250-6095.
Other Resources:

  • Call a toll-free Quit Line and get help on the phone!
    1-800-QUIT NOW (1-800-784-8669); Monday-Friday, 8:00am – midnight
  •  Find a local program

Quit Now! NC Smoking Cessation Local Referral Directory

Working Smoke Free in Buncombe County

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The cost benefit to an employer for adopting a smoke-free policy at the worksite can be significant. Buncombe County Health Center's Project ASSIST can help employers set up a policy and provide technical assistance through the process. We can also help employees advocate for smoke-free worksites.

For help in establishing a tobacco-free policy, please call Project ASSIST at 828-250-5048.

Tobacco and Smoke-free Links and Resources:

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Contact Information

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Karen Caldwell, MS
(828) 250-5048
karen.caldwell@buncombecounty.org

 

 

Servicio Interpretes Gratis
Free Language Assistance is Available