Progress noted against smoking

By Javacia N. Harris
Times Snohomish County bureau

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Six thousand children die each year in the United States from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.

The members of the Snohomish Health District's tobacco-prevention program had hoped that statistic, pulled from a study published in 1997, would persuade people to stop smoking around nonsmokers, especially children.

So they plastered it on billboards and buses, and printed it on refrigerator magnets and car air fresheners as part of the first phase of a campaign to increase awareness of the effects of secondhand tobacco smoke.

They say it's working.

In a recent telephone survey of 500 randomly selected adults in areas where the messages were promoted, the health district said 20 percent of respondents who smoke had changed their smoking behavior at home or in the car as a result of seeing the campaign materials. Seventeen percent of respondents who said they once allowed smoking in their homes reported a change, as did 21 percent of respondents who once allowed smoking in their vehicles.

The survey was done by Gilmore Research Group of Seattle. No margin of error was reported.

Cheryl Combest, the manager of the tobacco-prevention program, said she was shocked by the results.

"Often, even if people do change their behavior, they won't admit it," she said.

Some respondents to the survey, which was conducted in January, said they stopped smoking when their grandchildren were visiting or when their nephews were riding in their cars, Combest said.

The campaign is the work of a partnership of the Snohomish Health District, the Tulalip Tribes, the Stillaguamish Tribe and Northwest Educational Service District 189, a group that provides administrative and instructional support services to public school districts and state-approved private schools in several counties, including Snohomish County.
 
Pleased with the results of the first phase, which targeted Arlington, Marysville and Darrington, the groups met yesterday to discuss the program's next phase.

The groups want to expand their efforts to other parts of the county and to focus on the Tulalip and Stillaguamish tribes for the next phase of the campaign. Combest said the health district found that more than 40 percent of adult Native Americans in Snohomish County smoke cigarettes, while less than 25 percent of the county's general population smokes.

Along with billboards and bus advertising, the groups also tacked up 100 posters that featured statistics on the effects of secondhand tobacco smoke on children and pictures of a mound of cigarettes in a crib, car seat or highchair. The group also distributed thousands of informational packets to parents.

The campaign is funded by a $74,000 state grant. Tim Church of the state Department of Health said reducing exposure to tobacco smoke, especially for children, is one of the department's priorities.

"Kids with parents who smoke in the home can be breathing horrible amounts of secondhand smoke," he said.

Lyndie Case, a substance-abuse project specialist for Northwest Educational Service District 189, said she thinks focusing on secondhand smoke is important because it's an issue that affects everyone, not just smokers.

"Everybody deserves the right to breathe clean air," she said, "not just people who speak up about it."

Javacia N. Harris: 425-745-7812 or jharris2@seattletimes.com