Stomping out the habit

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Josh Moshier
  • 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE S.D. --  Most smokers know lighting up affects their personal health and that of those around them. Besides the potential for lung cancer, smoking also causes stained teeth, shortness of breath, and stained and smelly clothes. 

So what, if not all this, can motivate a person to change? 

Senior Airman Joshua Pratt, 28th Communications Squadron airfield systems technician, who smoked cigarettes for seven years, was motivated by professional aspirations. He said he was tired of smoking daily and feared it would interfere with his goal of re-training into the survival, evasion, resistance and escape career field.
 
"The health and wellness center provided me with the resources to quit and gave me motivation and support throughout the process," Airman Pratt said. "The best advice I can give to people who want to quit is don't give up on it. It took me more than one try, and it's something you must be absolutely prepared for." 

The HAWC currently offers a variety of methods to assist tobacco users in kicking the habit, including access to the American Lung Association Tobacco Line, weekly drop-in classes, a comprehensive class held twice a month after regular duty hours, and access to Chantix - the newest drug in the fight against nicotine addiction. 

Perhaps the most important support the Ellsworth HAWC provides is a pledge to not give up on those who may not be able to quit on their first try. 

"We understand tobacco creates a physical and psychological addiction in users," said Tanya Henriques, 28th Medical Operations Squadron HAWC health education program manager. "This is a chronic relapsing disease. We will let people try as many times as they need to quit the habit for good." 

Staff Sgt. Paul Vestal, 28th Medical Support Squadron biomedical equipment technician, who smoked for nine years, has an intimate understanding of quitting challenges. 

"The biggest obstacle for me was finally making the decision to quit for good," Sergeant Vestal said. "If you factor in all your smoke breaks and how much money is wasted on the habit, it would be like getting off work one or two hours early every day and getting a raise for it." 

If time, money, good health, job security and marketability aren't enough of a deterrent for Airmen and civilians, it should perhaps be noted that the goal of Air Force leadership is to have a tobacco-free fighting force. Air Force Instruction 40-102 spells out specifically that tobacco is prohibited in the workplace and its use is explicitly discouraged. The new base commander is taking aggressive steps to meet that goal of having a tobacco-free fighting force here. 

"Tobacco use negatively impacts the health of our Airmen, which in turn can affect our readiness and ability to deploy," said Col. Scott Vander Hamm, 28th Bomb Wing commander. "We've already taken steps to quell smoking and the use of smokeless tobacco at Ellsworth, such as eliminating smoking in our dormitories, and we will continue to foster initiatives that encourage our Airmen and civilians to discontinue the use of tobacco products." 

The implementation of the commander's new policy letter restricting tobacco use in dorms, and future policy changes, figure to have the most impact on tobacco use at Ellsworth. 

"A policy has a lot more affect for change; it has teeth," said Mrs. Henriques. "Changing policy and a change in attitudes can help more than anything." 

For more information on how to quit using tobacco, call the HAWC at 385-2349, or the ALA help line at (800) 548-8252.