Cigarette package labels are one of the better ways to educate smokers about the hazards of smoking, yet in the U.S. you get more ingredient information on the label of a candy bar than a pack of cigarettes.

The International Tobacco Control Four Country Survey examined the impact of cigarette labels in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia on their effectiveness in imparting information about smoking.

The survey showed:

• Smokers in all four countries had “significant gaps” in what they knew about the health effect of tobacco smoke.
• Two-thirds of survey respondents said cigarette package labels were a source of health information.
• People had greater knowledge of health risks posed by tobacco when packages provided more comprehensive information, as do labels in Canada.
• Research shows that graphic labels can increase smoking cessation.
• Larger graphics with greater detail communicate more effectively.

Gross Works
In Canada and Australia, the most recent cigarette labels dominate the package and carry images of diseased lungs, rotting toes, diseased gums and other ills caused by smoking. New Zealand will follow suit in 2008.

A survey in Canada found that one fifth of the respondents reported smoking less because of the labels. So, tobacco lobby, why hasn’t this caught on in the U.S.?

What’s Not on the Candy Bar Label
Food and Drug Administration regulations state that candy bars are A-OK as long as they contain less than 30 insect fragments for each two ounces of candy bar. Isn’t it amazing what one learns working in an advertising agency?

Back in July, when I began two months of no cigarettes on my first quit attempt, I recognized that setting the quit date and handing Jeff that last, unfinished pack of cigarettes were the hardest parts of kicking the habit.

Now that I’m hung up on smoking one cigarette a day, I can’t:

• get motivated?
• focus?
• get tough with myself?

I just don’t know. I haven’t had much time to think about it, much less focus on giving up that one daily cigarette.

What I do know is:

• I absolutely don’t want to be a pack-a-day or even half-a-pack-a-day smoker. I don’t want to be a smoker–period.
• I don’t want to further damage my health.
• I don’t want to expose my family to second-hand smoke.
• I don’t want the expense of smoking.
• I don’t want to smell like smoke–yecch!
• I don’t want my car to smell like smoke. (Though it still could use a good cleaning.)

So what’s my blasted problem!?

I had one cigarette Saturday and one Monday. Daughter Libby’s new baby, Aidan, came home from the hospital yesterday, so I think I’ll be better able to focus on getting all cigarettes out of my life.

To divert any yearnings for a puff or two, I plan to throw myself into the holiday season–not my favorite activity, but it is distracting and miserably time-consuming. Doing much of my shopping via the Internet helps.

What Does MFK Fisher Have To Do with Smoking Cessation?

I learned to read at age four and have found it hard to put down a book ever since. One of my favorite authors is M.F.K. Fisher. Mary Frances (the M.F. part) is often thought of as a food writer, but that really doesn’t do her justice. She writes about life, relationships, creativity, culture, adventures, living in France and California–and food. (In her later years, she gave her Thanksgiving guests food poisoning by mishandling the raw bird. While sympathizing with her guests, she also laughed about what it would do to her reputation.)

I loaned a M.F.K. Fisher book to our friend, Owen, a no-nonsense retired reporter. He was hesitant because I’d brought up the food-writing part which was a big turn-off to him, but I insisted he must at least read a chapter or two.

A couple weeks later, Owen announced, “I’m in love with Mary Frances.” He’d gone to the library and checked out everything she’d written.

Mary Frances and Dillwyn

The love of Mary Frances’ life was her second husband, the artist and writer Dillwyn Parrish, cousin of the better-known Maxfield Parrish. The couple lived a fairy tale after their marriage in 1938. He painted. She wrote. They owned a Swiss villa, complete with vineyard and a view of Lake Geneva.

After one blissful year of marriage, however, Dillwyn was diagnosed with Buerger’s Disease, an autoimmune condition which many experts believe is caused by cigarette smoking. Buerger’s is the inflammation and clotting in veins and arteries of feet, legs and hands. Its main symptom is pain. Dillwyn lost a leg to gangrene, a common complication of Buerger’s.

After treatment in Europe was unsuccessful and Buerger’s threatened Dillwyn’s other leg, the couple moved back to California, where Mary Frances had been raised. Wracked by unrelenting pain and knowing amputation of his other leg was imminent, Dillwyn walked into the desert one morning in 1941 and shot himself.

Mary Frances married again, bore two daughters and lived a long, fruitful life. But the loss of Dillwyn was with her, always.

Buerger’s Disease

Buerger’s is most common among men under the age of 45 who are, or have recently been heavy smokers. It’s rarely fatal, but amputation of affected limbs is common. At this time, the primary treatment for Buerger’s is total abstinence from all forms of tobacco. There is no cure.

Brandon Carmichael

Brandon Carmichael has been duking it out with Buerger’s Disease since 1999, when he was just 18 years of age. Visit Brandon’s web site to read his compelling story.

In the gypsy years of my youth, I lived in the San Francisco Bay area–in Oakland, Walnut Creek, San Jose and Cupertino. The latter two towns are on the peninsula that runs south of San Francisco and when traveling to and from the city, I’d pass the town of Belmont.

There was nothing particularly remarkable about Belmont at that time beyond the fact that it’s located in one of the most dramatically beautiful parts of the U.S. Now, however, Belmont is big news because last week its city council voted unanimously to ban smoking anywhere in the city except a private, single-family home. If the ordinance is adopted, you could be issued a ticket for smoking in your car, in an apartment or condo, on the street or in the park.

Stay tuned: Belmont city staff have been asked to draft the ordinance banning smoking, with the goal of reviewing the draft ordinance in January 2007.

Your Thoughts?

I’ve addressed some of the risks associated with secondhand smoke in other entries, so you know I believe strongly that people should be protected from smoke created by others. But this ordinance is going way too far, isn’t it? Or is it just that we’re so accustomed to being able to smoke most places that this strikes many of us as being over-the-top? What are your thoughts?

Naive, 18 and Job Hunting In the Bay Area

I had just turned 18 when I moved from Southern California to the San Francisco Bay area. Instilled with a strong work ethic and encouraged to impart a can-do attitude, I went door-to-door at neighborhood businesses when I needed a part-time job. I dressed well, acted confident, and asked if they had any openings. At one shop–kind of an exercise studio–they were exceptionally friendly and offered me the position of receptionist. Hooray, a job! And such friendly people!

I was to go back the following week to seal the deal. A couple nights later, the sound of multiple sirens and lights flashing through my drawn curtains woke me from a sound sleep. Peeking out the window, I saw what had to be every police car on the peninsula, all parked in front of the exercise studio where I was to begin work.

The incident was in all the news outlets the next day. It seems the “exercise studio” that got busted was one of the Bay Area’s largest houses of ill repute.

Wow, could my career have taken a vastly different direction.

My kids absolutely hate to hear this story.

Today is the Great American Smokeout, the annual American Cancer Society event in which people from around the country quit smoking for 24 hours–or more. Last year, it’s estimated that nearly 2.3 million Americans participated in the event.

I hope many of you are participating. I am–for the first time. In past years, I defiantly blew it off. If I had participated in the past, I would have seen that I can go without a cigarette for far longer than 24 hours.

The Smokeout grew out of a 1971 fundraising event which encouraged people to give up smoking for one day and donate the dollars they would have spent on cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund. The idea spread and by 1977, The American Cancer Society took the campaign national.

I was in high school in 1971 and already smoking. I don’t remember being aware of the Great American Smokeout until the mid-to-late 1980s.

Earth Day

I do remember well the first Earth Day in 1970. It was the brainchild of Wisconsin’s great former senator, Gaylord Nelson.

Earth Day was quite the big deal in Southern California. A group of us took a long trek on our bikes to a teacher’s house on Newport Beach. After spending the night there, we got up and rode back to be in time for our first classes. That was a trip we normally made by car and it felt great to know I could go that far on my leg- and lung-power.

Both events are alive and well in 2006. I’m grateful for the compassionate and visionary people who started these great traditions.

There have been three schools of comments related to my inability to kick my one cigarette a day habit.

The Tough Lovers

Ex-smokers, this group gives no quarter. They insist quitting that cigarette should be my only focus, that I display junkie thinking and excuses, and that I’m still emotionally addicted.

I very much agree with all of these comments except making quitting the single cigarette my only focus. This needs to be done but given the momentous/frightening/overwhelming/time-demanding events in my family right now, I just don’t have that focus at this time. I do know that it’s too easy to put off quitting because of stress or work/family demands. However, there are times of emergency and this is one for me.

Boosters

I get a lot of positive encouragement and recognition from these folks.

I appreciate this group because they recognize how far I’ve come and they acknowledge that I’m not a total failure for smoking a cigarette a day. Nevertheless, the Boosters are unrelenting in urging me to quit–all the way. The support they offer has made a huge difference to me.

Sympathizers

My sympathizers tend to be smokers or ex-smokers who have been supportive throughout my smoking cessation journey. They make all kinds of excuses for me. And they’re a little irritated with the Tough Lovers.

These are very kind, well-meaning people. I get a kick out of them. However, I feel much more strongly than they do about my need to totally kick the habit.

The past week, I’ve fallen behind in many things, including:

• Writing in this blog;
• Responding to readers who have commented on blog entries;
• Getting my kicking the habit mojo working;
• Grooming those mangy-looking dogs.

Every spare moment beginning last Wednesday has been spent at the hospital. Libby and Aidan are doing much better and I look forward to some sort of normalcy.

Speaking of mojo–my only granddaughter, NADIA, miss 9-year-old moxie herself, was vastly relieved when she learned that her beloved Aunt Libby was having a boy. “A girl would have stolen my mojo,” she said.

I’ve not thought much about ditching that daily cigarette. Today I told a supportive colleague that I’ve been too stressed and too distracted to focus on not smoking. He reminded me that there are better ways to deal with stress without giving in to that cigarette, such as walking, meditating, exercise (yeech!) or using relaxation techniques.

I know. I know. I know.

Our new grandson, Aidan Andrew Carlson, was born to our daughter, Elizabeth, last Friday afternoon.

Loads of stress…She went into the hospital to be induced Wednesday. Friday afternoon (!), they did a c-section. Libby was exhausted, but awesome. I was a wreck.

Aidan is nothing short of spectacular! He has reddish-blond hair, white-blond eyebrows and a chubby round face just like my babies had. At 8 pounds 11 ounces and 21 inches, he’s a good-size fellow. (His Uncle Ben noticed the fine hair on his cheeks that all babies have and quickly lose and said, with trepidation, “He may end up being a pretty hairy guy.” Aidan’s mother set Ben straight immediately.)

Unfortunately, Aidan’s going to have to stay in the hospital a little longer due to minor, temporary health issues.

Joy! Oh Joy! A lovely new baby boy!
Stress, stress and more stress!

I have not licked my cigarette-a-day habit. In fact, Friday I had two. But I have not bought a pack and fully intend to get back on track.