First step to booting tobacco habit is call away

By Michael McNutt

Published: July 15, 2007

A free telephone service has helped more than 12,000 Oklahomans kick their tobacco addictions in the past four years.

The Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline — paid for with money from tobacco companies — averages about a 25 percent stop-smoking rate, based on random samplings of those who used the service, said Tracey Strader, executive director of the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund.

That compares with a success rate of about 5 percent for a smoker or tobacco user who tries to stop without any help, Strader said.

Doug Matheny, chief of the state Health Department's tobacco use prevention service, said the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline "is a very important resource.”

"Traditionally when you want to get assistance to quit smoking, it always involved going to a class of some sort, which is still an important option, but it doesn't work for all people all the time,” Matheny said. "If you are able to call from the comfort of your own home ... it's convenient, which is a big part of why it's so successful.”

A recent survey of about 6,000 Oklahoma adult smokers indicates most want to quit, he said. It showed about 57 percent of Oklahoma's smokers tried to quit for at least one day during 2006. It's estimated Oklahoma has about 675,000 smokers.

Strader said an estimated 49,000 smokers have called the toll-free telephone service since Oklahoma started the program in August 2003.

For some people, it only takes one call to receive the motivation to quit. For others it could take several phone calls talking with an assigned quit coach for them to succeed, Strader said.

Those who call are assigned a counselor, or what is called a quit coach.

Some callers will be mailed additional aids, such as nicotine patches or brochures.

The state board has contracted with Free & Clear Inc., a Seattle-based company, since offering the telephone service.

"Free & Clear has well over 100 quit coaches available because they serve 14 or 15 other states and they have quite a few commercial clients,” Strader said. "If we were going to create it ourselves, we wouldn't have that kind of capacity to get people served immediately.”

It's important to have counselors available when smokers are ready to quit, she said. People can call the telephone line — (800) 784-8669 — between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. daily.

The company also has a staff that speaks Spanish.

The trust fund board is charged $18 for each caller who just wants information, about $80 for each caller who talks with a quit coach and about $40 for each follow-up call.

The average is three or four calls, she said.

A goal of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund's board is to help smokers quit and to prevent Oklahomans from starting to smoke or use tobacco products.

In addition to improving Oklahomans' health, a lower smoking rate reduces medical costs, Strader said.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates $1,623 is saved each year in excess direct medical costs for each smoker who quits; that amounts to $19,881,750 per year based on the 12,250 who have quit with help from the help line, Strader said.

Last year, an estimated 4,275 of 16,114 callers quit smoking, she said.

The fund's board has budgeted about $3.5 million to pay Free & Clear.

For this fiscal year, the board's preliminary budget is $10.4 million. About $1.25 million comes from the state Health Department and the rest comes from interest from the tobacco settlement endowment.

All but nearly $600,000, which goes for operational costs, goes to programs such as campaigns against tobacco use and the free telephone service.

Voters in 2000 approved a constitutional amendment to permanently set aside a portion of Oklahoma's share of the tobacco settlement.

Each year, 75 percent of Oklahoma's share of the settlement is placed in the endowment for investment.

The balance of the settlement payments is appropriated by the Legislature for health and human services purposes.

Oklahoma received more than $60 million from the tobacco industry in the 2007 fiscal year.