A new state plan asks Oklahomans to help reduce a leading cause of death by cutting tobacco use rates to below the national average by 2012.
About one in four Oklahoma adults (24.7 percent) now use tobacco products, compared to about one in five nationally. While Oklahoma has lowered its tobacco use rate in recent years — it was 28.7 percent in 2001 — health officials said more must be done to save lives and improve the health of Oklahomans, especially those exposed to secondhand smoke.
Lowering the state’s tobacco use rate to the national average of 19.7 percent would result in 200,000 fewer adult and youth users in the state, according to the plan by the state Health Department’s Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Advisory Committee. The committee is led by state Health Commissioner Terry Cline.
“Almost every Oklahoman has had loved ones die from tobacco use,” Cline said. “Because tobacco use affects all of us in some way, everyone has a role to play in reaching the ambitious goal of this new state plan.”
The committee urges Oklahoma to make their homes and cars tobacco-free, to refuse tobacco-industry sponsorships, and to urge elected leaders to support laws that prohibit smoking in public places and workplaces.
While legislators passed a law in 2003 restricting smoking in restaurants, it allowed eateries to install separate smoking rooms. An attempt to close that loophole failed last legislative session but is expected to resurface as health officials continue to pressure all businesses in the state to protect workers from secondhand smoke.
“We all feel that every Oklahoman is entitled to be protected from second-hand smoke,” said Janet Spradlin, a member of the tobacco committee and a health psychologist.
Tobacco use is a major risk factor in diseases that claim the lives of more than 5,800 Oklahomans each year. A federal study among the 50 states released earlier this year ranked Oklahoma as having the fifth-highest death rate from smoking.
Recommendations
Other recommendations of the report:
→Repeal legislation that prevents cities from passing tobacco ordinances stronger than state law.
→Prohibit tobacco companies from using free sampling and driver license scanning to market their products.
→Further raise state excise taxes on tobacco products.
→Require health insurance plans to cover tobacco dependence treatment.
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Tobacco is an annual or bi-annual growing 1-3 meters tall with large sticky leaves that contain nicotine. Native to the Americas, tobacco has a long history of use as a shamanic inebriant and stimulant. It is extremely popular and well-known for its addictive potential.
Nicotiana rustica leaves.
Nicotiana rustica leaves have a nicotine content as high as 9%, whereas Nicotiana tabacum (common tobacco) leaves contain about 1 to 3%
A cigar is a tightly rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco which is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sumatra, Philippines, and the Eastern United States.
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines. In consumption it may be in the form of cigarettes smoking, snuffing, chewing, dipping tobacco, or snus.
