Letters to the Editor

Hard-hitting ads helping smokers quit tobacco

I hope everyone in Gallatin County sees the new Tips From Former Smokers tobacco prevention commercials now playing on television, radio, in newspapers and on billboards.

These ads show real people telling real stories, giving voice to over 8 million Americans who are suffering from smoking-related chronic diseases.  They are hard-hitting and emotionally compelling.  But they are exactly the kinds of commercials that are proven to support smokers to try to quit.

Last year when the campaign was running, hundreds of thousands of smokers called 1-800-QUIT-NOW for help. Many non-smokers talked to loved ones to encourage them to quit.

The new ads from the CDC tell the stories of real people struggling with the kinds of smoking-related diseases that are far too common – including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, more severe adult asthma, and complications from diabetes, such as blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, and amputation.  They show how these illnesses have changed the way these people have to live their lives.  

One new feature of this campaign is an ad that focuses on the dangers of secondhand smoke, which kills almost 50,000 non-smokers each year. 

These commercials can help save our Montana residents from smoking-related death and disease.  Most smokers say they want to quit.  By showing real stories of how smoking can change the lives and health of Montana residents, these commercials will encourage smokers to quit and prevent young people from starting. 

This campaign is saving lives and saving dollars by giving people the facts about smoking in an easy-to-understand way that encourages quitting.

If you’re a smoker, when you see these ads I hope they help inspire you to try to quit.  And I hope you’ll visit www.cdc.gov/tips to view personal stories from the campaign.

Rick Gale

Gallatin County Tobacco Use Prevention Program

Montana Tobacco Advisory Board

For the 4th year in a row, Gallatin County was ranked as the healthiest county in Montana by the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps Program which is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.   

Ranking the health of nearly every county in the nation, the County Health Rankings illustrate what we know when it comes to what’s making people sick or healthy. The County Health Roadmaps show what we can do to create healthier places to live, learn, work and play.

Tobacco addiction continues to be the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and in Montana, claiming the lives of an average of four Montanans each day.

The County Healthy Rankings reported that the adult smoking prevalence for Gallatin County is 12 percent and 18 percent for Montana overall.  

The lower smoking rates for Gallatin County reflect the efforts of parents, teachers, health care providers, and community coalitions who are working together to promote quitting among adult and youth and prevent young people from using tobacco.

By working together, community partners in Gallatin County are helping people live longer and healthier lives than the generation who came before them. If young people don’t start using tobacco by age 26, they almost certainly will never start.

For more information and additional resources, go to www.cdc.gov/tobacco.

Richard N. Gale

Gallatin County Tobacco Use Prevention Program  



Smoking prevention leads to longer, healthier lives

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Letter to the Editor

January 19, 2013

In a recent landmark study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, researchers at Columbia University identified a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products could act as gateway drugs, increasing a person’s future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well.

The study is the first to show that nicotine might prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine.

In a national survey conducted by the National Institutes of Health it was learned that over 90 percent of adult cocaine users between the ages of 18 and 34 had smoked cigarettes before they began using cocaine.

Nicotine, the researchers found, makes the brain more susceptible to cocaine addiction. The finding suggests that lowering smoking rates in young people might help reduce cocaine abuse.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Education have reported on nicotine addiction as well.

According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, the younger a child starts smoking, the more addicted he becomes.

The Department of Education echoes the CDC findings. Its report, “Youth and Tobacco,” says people who “begin to smoke at an early age are more likely to develop severe levels of nicotine addiction than those who start at a later age.”

Tobacco use is also a gateway for other negative behaviors, not just more dangerous drug taking. Cigarette smokers are also more likely to get into fights, carry weapons, attempt suicide, and engage in high-risk sexual behaviors.

Effective smoking prevention efforts not only prevent the negative health consequences associated with smoking but could also decrease the risk of progression and addiction to cocaine and possibly other illicit drug use.

Ken Spencer

Prevention Specialist

Alcohol & Drug Services of Gallatin County

Richard N. Gale

Tobacco Prevention Specialist

Gallatin County Tobacco Use Prevention Program

Tobacco use tied to low socioeconomic staus

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Letter to the Editor

November 15, 2012

According to the National Network on Tobacco Prevention and Poverty, the greatest single predictor of tobacco use is low socioeconomic status. 

Characteristics that describe low socioeconomic status (SES) populations include: low-income, those with less than 12 years of education, the medically underserved, the unemployed, and the working poor.

Tobacco and poverty create a vicious cycle: low income people smoke more, suffer more, spend more, and die more from tobacco use.

Lower-income smokers spend a larger portion of their income on tobacco products and related costs than higher-income smokers, sometimes diverting resources that could be used on necessities such as food, shelter, and health care, or for education and job training

Low socioeconomic status populations can benefit from comprehensive tobacco prevention and cessation programs like the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program that uses CDC evidence-based Best Practices that include community-based programs to help Montanans who use tobacco quit their addiction, and to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke.

Reducing tobacco use among any segment of society produces enormous public health and economic benefits by reducing premature death and disability, improving worker productivity, reducing smoking caused costs, and shifting resources currently expended on tobacco use and health costs to more productive purposes.

For more information about the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program, visit:  tobaccofree.mt.gov.

Jen Collins

Homeless Outreach/Peer Support Specialist

Gallatin Mental Health Center

Richard N. Gale

Gallatin County Tobacco Use Prevention Program

Montana Tobacco Prevention Advisory Board

Make Montana smoke-free

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Letter to the Editor

October 13, 2012

Every year, almost 1,000 smokers and non-smokers are killed in home fires caused by smoking materials (cigarettes, cigars, pipes).

And according to the U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire Incident Reporting System, one-in-four people killed in home fires was not the smoker whose cigarette caused the fire, more than one third were children of the smokers, and twenty-five percent were neighbors or friends of the smokers.

If you smoke or live with someone who smokes, learn the facts. A lit cigarette left alone in a room, or accidentally dropped onto a chair or bed, or hot cigarette ashes or matches tossed away before they are completely out - all can cause a large fire in seconds.

Many local and State fire departments have created successful fire safety and prevention programs geared toward reducing smoking-related fires. 

These prevention programs, the widespread use of smoke alarms, and the use of residential sprinkler systems are making a difference in the number of residential smoking fires.

And by going smoke-free, you eliminate the #1 cause of preventable home fire deaths.   

Some insurance companies may even provide reduced premium rates to buildings that are smoke free or to tenants who live in a smoke-free building.

For information about Montana Smokefree Housing, visit http://tobaccofree.mt.gov/.

And for additional smoking fire safety information, please visit

http://www.usfa.fema.gov/citizens/home_fire_prev/smoking.shtm.

Richard N. Gale
Montana Tobacco Prevention Advisory Board

Children suffer when adults smoke while driving

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Letter to the Editor

September 4, 2012

Laws banning smoking in cars when children are present are being enacted across the nation.

These laws are being passed by communities to protect children from the harmful effects of  breathing secondhand smoke in confined spaces such as a car or truck.

So how toxic is the air inside a vehicle when someone is smoking?  And are children really impacted by secondhand smoke?

The level of toxic air in a vehicle when someone is smoking is up to ten times greater than the level which the United States Environmental Protection Agency considers hazardous. 

The harmful chemicals in secondhand smoke can remain in the air and on surfaces in a car or truck for many hours, and even days, after a cigarette has been smoked. These chemicals stick to surfaces, such as a child’s car seat, making it a potential hidden source of danger for children.

Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoke. Studies have shown that children exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from respiratory infections like bronchitis and pneumonia, ear infections, worsened asthma symptoms and attacks, and even an increased risk of SIDS.

For now, Montana is not one of those states that have banned smoking in cars when children are present.

We encourage all Montanans to educate themselves about this issue and the costly health implications for youth of all ages.

For more information about smoke-free vehicles, visit tobaccofreegallatin.org.

Pepper Henyon, MD

Bozeman Deaconess Pediatrics

Andrea Stevenson, CEO

Gallatin Valley YMCA

Richard N. Gale

Gallatin County Tobacco Use Prevention Program