April 20, 2001

Carolyn Massik was only 15 years old when she secretly started to smoke a couple of cigarettes now and then. Like many teenagers, she knew her mother would disapprove, but she did it anyway. By the age of 17, she was hooked, smoking more than a pack each day.

"Where I grew up, in coastal Virginia, everyone smoked," says Massik. "My older siblings smoked, even my father smoked. It's what everyone did back then. We thought it made us look glamorous."

Now, 42 years later, Massik is celebrating her one-year anniversary as a nonsmoker, thanks in part to the MGH Quit Smoking Service.

"I finally made the decision to quit when I walked into a smokers' lounge at the Atlanta airport," says Massik. "I was struck by how tacky they all looked, puffing away. And I thought that I probably didn't look any different. That really turned me around."

Massik had tried to quit before, but the lure of nicotine kept her under the spell of addiction. After a year of trying to quit, a friend recommended that she try a structured cessation program. Having lived in the Beacon Hill area for 14 years, Massik knew that the MGH had such a program.

Since 1993, the MGH Quit Smoking Service has offered group counseling programs and nicotine replacement to patients, families, hospital employees and the community. Until recently, smokers' access to these services was limited by a lack of insurance coverage. Fortunately, that changed in October 2000, when the Massachusetts Department of Public Health began covering tobacco treatment with a new program that is offered at the MGH. The MGH Quit Smoking Service now can offer low-cost treatment, including nicotine gum and patches, to any smoker in Massachusetts. The service, led by Nancy Rigotti, MD, (at right) who also is the director of the MGH Tobacco Research and Treatment Center, is a joint program of the MGH General Medicine and Preventive Cardiology departments.

Smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 430,700 lives each year in the United States, according to the American Lung Association. Smoking costs Americans approximately $97.2 billion each year in medical costs and lost productivity from missed workdays resulting from smoking-related illnesses.

"Despite awareness campaigns and more education about the health consequences of smoking, 19 percent of Massachusetts residents smoke," says Rigotti. "There still is a need for support and treatment services, and now we can provide free or low-cost tobacco treatment to more people who want to quit."

The staff of the MGH Quit Smoking Service work with individual smokers, in collaboration with their primary care providers, to tailor a treatment plan. The service also supports the efforts of MGH clinicians and outpatient practices to offer smoking counseling as part of their routine office practice.

Massik credits her first smoke-free year to the support she received from the MGH's group counseling program, which is run by Thelma Tisdale, RN, MPH, an ex-smoker herself. "Thelma told us right from the beginning that this would be one of the hardest things we would ever do," she says. "But the people who run this program were so helpful, understanding and nurturing. They did everything but quit smoking for us."

For more information, call (617) 726-7443.