Smokers gear up to quit and win

By Marika Azzopardi

Over 600 people have applied to participate in this year’s edition of the Quit & Win campaign, which helps smokers kick their nicotine habit. Launched on World Health Day, 7 April 2002, Quit & Win 2002 has once again been used by the Department of Health Promotion as a valuable tool to entice people to put a halt to their smoking addiction.

Maria Ellul, Acting Director at the Department of Health Promotion gave an update on the current situation.

"People had to hand over their applications for participation as from 5 April through to 1 May 2002," she said. "On 2 May we had 602 applications. All these people are actively taking part in this endeavour. In fact their task is to avoid smoking throughout all of May. On 30 May this Department, together with the Department of Public Lotto will hold a draw for 10 people out of these 602. The first six to be drawn will be called in to make a test."

They will be tested by special kits which were brought in especially from Finland and which contain test strips to be used with urine samples. If a person has stopped smoking for four weeks, then the test result will be clear. But if the person tested is found to have traces of nicotine in the urine, this will mean that he or she did smoke during this time period and then will be ineligible. The final six people found to be completely clean of nicotine will be the winners of this year’s campaign. Prizes are all connected to health and include memberships in an exclusive gym and vouchers for fitness machines.

"The date of 31 May is actually ‘World No Tobacco Day’ and this year it is associated with the World Cup. The theme of ‘World Tobacco Day’ has involved FIFA and the International Committee who are banning smoking during World Cup events."

During May, all participants were given guidelines through self-help booklets. This promotes the cessation of the smoking habit although some persons may need extra help. "People who have been smoking for a short while and who smoke less than one packet a day, usually manage to help themselves sufficiently. However people who have been smoking for many years and who were heavy smokers, are encouraged to make use of a smoking cessation aid. This is nicotine replacement therapy or IBUPROPON." A newly released medication, IBUPROPION has been available on the international market for the past 18 months and in Malta for the past year. It works on the brain and blocks the site where nicotine acts. Being a medication, it can only be sold by prescription.

"All participants were sent a certificate of motivation which shows the quitting procedure, step by step. This increases their determination to keep to their set task. However there have been some persons who phoned in and admitted that they have smoked the odd cigarette. We still encourage them to keep on trying. It’s not easy and all quitters have a different history of trials and errors. But dealing with an addiction is difficult and smoking is an addiction after all."