September 15, 2008
Don’t let smoking make a monkey out of you. Call YKHC’s Nicotine Control & Research and get help quitting: 1-800-478-3321 or 543-6312
Tobacco Use in the Delta
Q: How many Alaskans are using tobacco?
A: Alaska Natives have the highest smoking rates of any racial group in the state. 39 percent of Alaska Natives adults smoke. The statewide rate is 21 percent (BRFSS 2007).
The use of chewing tobacco, snuff, iqmik (traditional smokeless tobacco) is widespread in rural Alaska.
32 percent of high school Alaska Native students grade 9-12 reported they smoked and 30 percent had used smokeless tobacco (YRBS 2007).
Among YKHC patients who have been screened for tobacco use, 49 percent smoke, 51percent use chew, 78 percent of pregnant women use tobacco (GPRA 2007).
Q: What are the risk factors for tobacco use?
A: Ninety percent of all lung cancers are caused by smoking.
Today one in three cancer deaths among Alaska Natives are from lung cancer.
Asthma, heart disease and stroke
Pregnant women who smoke can damage the unborn child's developing organs.
Children of parents who smoke have more respiratory infections.
In 2004, more Alaskans died from the effects of smoking than from suicide, motor vehicle crashes, homicide, HIV/AIDS, and influenza combined (per Alaska Tobacco facts, June 2006).
An estimated 120 Alaskans die each year from exposure to secondhand smoke.
Q: What can the Alaska Tobacco Quit line offer?
A: This free service can be used from your home in privacy. It offers supportive, caring quit coaches who work with you to develop a quit plan.
Optional follow-up calls
Information kits
Free nicotine replacement patches to qualified participants
YKHC Nicotine Control & Research1-800-478-3321 or 543-6312
