Jason Kalivas, Quit Coach, Service Delivery:
Not long ago, I had the great fortune to spend two weeks on vacation in Europe, visiting friends, seeing sights, playing tourist. But, while I was glad to be away, I couldn't leave my job entirely behind. Europe, after all, has a lot of smokers.
I spent the first half of my trip in Denmark where, the World Health Organization tells me, 36.1% of men and 30.6% of women smoke. I'm happy to report that the friend I stayed with is not part of that statistic, and I got to breathe easy in her apartment. Germany's on a similar curve, with 37.4% of German men and 25.8% of German women smoking. My German friend does smoke, but only outside.
By way of contrast, the CDC says that in Washington, where I live, 18.9% of men and 15.3% of women smoke. So, in other words, I was almost TWICE as likely to meet a smoker in Europe as I am at home. That hurts me as a tourist, when I'm trying to admire the architecture at the Brandenburg Gate but am distracted by the cloud from the tourists next to me. But it hurts the Europeans, too, since twice as many of them will suffer from smoking-related illness as my fellow Washingtonians. Imagine that, if you knew twice the number of people you do now with asthma, with heart disease, with cancer. What would that be like?
But I don't want to paint an entirely black picture. Things in Europe are getting better. Since 2004, at least 10 European countries enacted some sort of work-place or public smoking ban, including Denmark and Germany. Some of them are strangely limited; like Denmark's, which only applies to restaurants above a certain size (my Danish friend noted that small spaces will get even more cloudy, as smokers crowd inside), or Germany's ban, which is still new and police aren't enforcing yet, in the hopes that restauranteurs will enforce it themselves. They're not.
What's more significant, though, is what I haven't found statistics for - the number of people interested in quitting. My last time in Europe, four years ago, there were just as many smokers, but they were content with their habits and addictions. This time, I met a few people who were actively quitting and many more who were in what we'd call the Contemplation stage - thinking about quitting, making plans, refusing to buy cigarettes as a first step. I was happy to give some tips to the folks I met, and even happier that they asked for my advice, when I told them what my job is.
It's my hope that European governments and businesses will follow and strengthen these trends, in the same way that Free & Clear's state and business clients are doing, and fund tobacco cessation programs to help their people along.
In the meantime, though, I have to say it was a relief that I could come home, dump the contents of my suitcase in the wash and put on clothes that don't smell like smoke.