MEDIA ADVISORY: New Year’s Resolution! 

QUIT SMOKING in 2004!

WHO: Lirio Covey, PhD, Director, Smoking Cessation Clinic

WHAT:New Year’s Resolution 2004: Quit Smoking; Study Recruiting African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians

WHERE: The New York State Psychiatric Institute @ Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons, 1051 Riverside Drive @ W. 165th St.

The past year has been a bad one for smokers. Not only did the smoking ban go into effect in New York City, but those still not inspired to quit may have learned of a new study suggesting that long-term exposure to large quantities of nicotine, the well-known addictive component of tobacco, may be the culprit in tobacco-related cancers. (Nicotine replacement therapy is an established effective treatment and only low doses of nicotine are given over a short period.) It had been largely assumed that the tar and chemicals in tobacco were the primary cancer-causing agents. These two developments are great reasons to quit smoking in 2004.

An estimated 440,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related diseases, according to the American Lung Association. Looking at that population along racial/ethnic lines, it becomes clear how little smoking research is done involving minority smokers trying to quit. Tobacco is heavily marketed to African-Americans and Hispanics exposing them early on to the possibility of lifelong addiction yet it is difficult to get data that would point to treatments that would reduce the prevalence of addiction to nicotine and tobacco in racial/ethnic minorities. To this end, the Minorities and other Underserved Smokers Treatment Research study at the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons is recruiting volunteers. For more information, call (212) 543-5905.

12/03

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