Utah lungs will be part of 'Smokeout'

Scott Miller's dad traded cigarettes for a pipe. He didn't give up tobacco completely, though, until the day he lit his clothes on fire putting it away.

Miller figures it might take something that drastic before he succeeds in his quest to kick the habit.

He understands Mark Twain's words: "It's easy to stop smoking. I've done it a thousand times."

Miller has tried to quit for much of his 22 years as a smoker. He tried going cold turkey. He switched to a pipe but found he was smoking it more and more. Years ago, he tried a study medication as part of a clinical trial and it worked great — until the study ended and the pills were no longer available to him. A month later, he had "a couple of really bad days" and one little cigarette seemed pretty harmless.

Back to square one.

So he tries to make it inconvenient, never smoking in the house, smoking in the car only if he's trapped there on a long trip or in endless gridlock. He smokes partial cigarettes to cut his intake. He tried the nicotine patch, but he's small and it was too strong, "like sticking a needle into my bones." His doctor told him to skip that one. Nicotine gum nauseated him. Now he's trying to enroll in a new clinical trial for another promising smoke deterrent.

When Thursday comes, he'll be one of an estimated 32,000 Utahns who try to make it through the entire day without a cigarette during the American Cancer Society's "Great American Smokeout."

Who knows? One day might lead to another, he hopes.

Everyone knows where smoking can lead: increased risk of cancer, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, gum disease, heart disease, stroke, low fertility, low birthweight. The list of ills linked to tobacco is long.

Smokers know all that. Ask them and more than 80 percent will tell you sincerely they want to quit, surveys show. For many, it takes seven or eight tries.

Some experts say it's easier for a junkie to give up heroin than for an addicted smoker to give up nicotine.

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A national survey after last year's Smokeout found 8.3 million of the estimated 46.2 million smokers nationwide took the day off from smoking, with about 2.3 million giving up their habit for the entire day. That number is extrapolated to estimate that 32,000 Wasatch Front residents will quit for the day Thursday.

Smoking has dropped significantly over the Smokeout's 28 years. Still:

• Smoking will cause 30 percent of this year's estimated 563,700 cancer deaths. It's a major cause of lung cancer, but also of cancers of the mouth, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, kidney, bladder, pancreas and cervix. It has recently been linked to colorectal cancer, myeloid leukemia, and cancers in the liver, stomach and nasal sinuses.