Quit now?

November 20 marks the 33rd annual Great American Smokeout. The day originated in the early 1970s and in 1976 became a nationwide challenge. The event is always held the third Thursday of November and the purpose is to encourage smokers to kick the habit, even if for one day.

In the state of Washington, the average smoker starts at age 12; 80 percent beginning before they turn 18.

According to Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services Tobacco Prevention Specialist Linda Hartung, a survey from 2007 said statewide approximately 16.5 percent of the adult population are smokers. In Wahkiakum County, 13.2 percent smoke, Cowlitz County, 22.4 percent and in Pacific County, 24.0 percent.

A survey of youth showed high usage of tobacco. Statewide, 20 percent of high school seniors admitted to smoking. In Wahkiakum County, 25 percent, Cowlitz County 24.1 percent and Pacific, 25 percent.

Health officials have long said that smoking cigarettes can cause many illnesses including but not limited to heart disease, stroke, lung disease and bronchitis. By quitting smoking, people can cut their chances of developing these diseases by a significant amount.

According to a quit smoking website, when a person gives up smoking, their bodies begin to take on changes immediately. After only 20 minutes, the blood pressure drops to a normal rate and body temperature returns to normal.

After 24 hours, the chance of a heart attack goes down, after 48, nerve endings begin to re-grow and the ability to smell and taste begins to improve. In two weeks to three months, circulation improves, and lungs perform up to 30 percent better.

After the first year of quitting, the risk of coronary heart disease is cut to half that of a smoker, in 10 years, the risk of cancer to the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas go down and in 15 years, the risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non smoker.

Local residents shared their experiences with tobacco. Marnee Davis was a smoker on and off for 30 years. She has been tobacco free for four years. She and her husband quit at the same time for health reasons.

“The quitting part was easy,” she said. “We used the patch, both of us. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.”

For six weeks they both wore the patches. “It was amazing.” Davis said after using it, they never had the cravings again. A lot of it is a mindset, however. “You’ve got to put your mind to it and say, ‘ok, we are really going to do this.’”

Coping isn’t always easy, Davis said, but it is a choice. “You choose not to smoke. You find something else to do.” In Davis’s case, she chewed gum. In the years since she has quit, she said she feels better, she looks better and even her house smells better.

Davis admittedly paid no attention to the Great American Smokeout when she was a smoker. She said people need to decide on their own when to quit. “We were ready. Both my husband and I were.”

Davis, who started smoking at age 26 because of stressful life situations, said quitting is easier than people think.

“I think the fear of not smoking anymore overwhelms people,” she said, adding that if people try the patch or whatever method they choose for a week, when they see how they feel, they will quit. “Just keep putting those patches on.”

Former Cathlamet resident Kelly Logston first tried cigarettes at age 15 but wasn’t what could be classified as a regular smoker. She said she didn’t smoke everyday. Then she went to camp without any cigarettes and something didn’t feel right. “I found out I was having my first withdrawal.”

Somebody at the camp had chewing tobacco so she tried it. At that moment she realized she was addicted to nicotine.

“I didn’t even know it. I had no clue. I didn’t smoke all the time,” she said.

She started smoking because she and a girlfriend lit one up one day and she liked how it made her feel. “It was fun and it looked cool.” Or so she thought. “It was stupid.”

Her addiction to nicotine lasted 23 years, until one morning she woke up and couldn’t breathe. “I was praying, ‘God, if you let me live, I will not smoke again.” She was convinced it was the end of the line.

After a chest x-ray, the doctor told her that her lungs were fine but she had an infection around her lungs. The doctor didn’t know she was a smoker.

“It was a hit upside the head,” she said. She knew she had to quit. “I made that promise to God and I couldn’t go back on my promise, I couldn’t!”

Logston quit tobacco products cold turkey. She will be tobacco free for three years December 12. “It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life” Because it was so difficult, Logston knows she will never go back to smoking. “I would rather go through natural child birth before I go through the withdrawals of cigarettes again.”

The one thing she said people need most is support, and she got that from her dad. He was a smoker, but quit when she was a baby. “Not once did he put me down,” she said. “Not once.”

While quitting is important, Logston said people have to do it for themselves. “You have to want it bad enough.” When people are ready to quit, they know. “You don’t realize how much tobacco controls your life.”

Richard Hoven had his first experience with tobacco at age 13. One day his father caught him trying to steal a pack from a recently purchased carton. He said his dad told him if he wanted to smoke it would cost him a dollar a cigarette.

“So I paid him the dollar and he never asked me again,” he said.

Once Hoven went into the service, smoking seemed to be everywhere. He said he and his friends stationed in Asia would sell cigarettes in exchange for goods and souvenirs to send home.

Hoven said it seemed as if the Army promoted smoking. “They said it was part of growing up and being a man, but when I think back on it, it wasn’t.” Everywhere they went while in the Army, albeit the Noncommissioned Officers (NCO) club or the Post Exchange (PX), people were smoking. “So if you didn’t smoke, you were getting it anyway. Everybody smoked. It seemed it was the casual thing to do.”

Hoven, now a 20 year non smoker, admits to having an occasional cigar. He quit cigarettes cold turkey, but it is not a method he recommends. The best thing a person wanting to quit can do, he said, is to contact their doctor.

There are many methods of quitting. The Washington State Department of Health reports since the “quitline” was started, more than 105,000 people have called to get help. That number is 1-800-QUIT-NOW.