Pittsburghers are slower to kick smoking habit than counterparts in other cities
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Pittsburgh has a bigger smoking problem than most of the 14 similar cities to which it is compared by the nonprofit Pittsburgh Regional Indicator project.
"Pittsburgh has a pervasive culture of smoking," Dr. Bernard D. Goldstein, a member of the indicator organizing committee, said yesterday. That conclusion is based on information from 2006 U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention statistics.
"We have fewer people smoking than three years ago, but we're not doing as well as we should be, based on comparison cities," added Dr. Goldstein, of the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh.
That conclusion and others based on the CDC numbers are contained in an article posted yesterday on www.pittsburghtoday.org, the project's Web site. It was co-authored by Dr. Goldstein and Jennifer Geiselhart, also of Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health.
The main points:
• The seven-county Pittsburgh region has the lowest percentage of adults reporting they have never smoked (49.8 percent), lower even than the percentages of two "tobacco alley" comparison areas: Charlotte, N.C., (57 percent) and Richmond, Va., (54.5 percent).
• Only one of the 15 benchmark cities, Detroit, has a lower rate of people quitting since 2003. Pittsburgh had a 3.1 percent decrease in smokers since 2003; Detroit's was 2.2 percent.
• Only three benchmark cities had a higher percentage of smokers than Pittsburgh's 22.2 percent: Indianapolis, 22.5 percent; Cincinnati, 25.6 percent, and Detroit, 26.3 percent.
Why does Pittsburgh still rank as a smoking city?
"Our figures look at what, not why," Dr. Goldstein said, "but we know enough to know it's a problem. Cigarette smoking kills people. It has enormous economic costs, and it affects not only smokers but nonsmokers as well."
Drs. Geiselhart and Goldstein noted in their report that of the 14 comparison cities, nine have smoke-free ordinances that extend to restaurants and bars, six of which have "few if any loopholes." The six are Minneapolis, Boston, Denver, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. Three others, Kansas City, Cleveland and Indianapolis, have ordinances "whose effectiveness are as yet limited by extensive loopholes or inadequate enforcement."
Allegheny County passed an ordinance banning smoking in workplaces and most public places but a challenge, arguing that existing state law pre-empted the county from establishing its own smoking ban, was sustained in May by Commonwealth Court. Meanwhile, the state Legislature is considering a statewide smoking law.
"The tobacco industry in the past has worked hard to have smoking seen in movies, but only under favorable circumstances. Restaurants and bars are places people come to have a good time," Dr. Goldstein said. Those positive images, he said, work against efforts to get people to quit.
First Published April 3, 2008 12:00 am
