The General Good

Snuff the Butts

So how do you get people to stop smoking? The spontaneous quit rate is 1 percent—people just deciding to quit out of the blue.

First of all, you have to clarify what you are trying to achieve. Build your case: There’s a lot of science and research out there to support the smoke-free workplace. You’ve got to know your people, what their issues and problems are so you can communicate with them and you can show them that you really do care about them.

And the key thing is there’s really good treatment available right now for smoking cessation. I don’t work for the drug company, but the medication Chantix [a nicotine pill from Pfizer] we’ve found to be very effective in conjunction with an aggressive smoking program and a nonsmoking campus. Why help people quit? It’s the thing to do. People who smoke live ten years less.

Making it difficult to smoke makes it easier to quit. Take some of the pleasure and the social aspects away from it.

A lot of people say, “It’s my personal right, it’s my choice [to smoke].” But I learned over the years as a physician that smoking addiction is not a free choice for many people. The brain becomes dependent on the nicotine for pleasure, and it’s very hard for people to quit, and there are very uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms.

Making it difficult to smoke makes it easier to quit. Take some of the pleasure and the social aspects away from it. We still have people who go out to their cars to smoke on our campus, and it’s not fun. They get the nicotine, but they don’t get the camaraderie, the fun, the friendship.

Smoking is not good for business. Smokers are gone from work a lot, they work fewer hours, have higher health care costs, have higher insurance premiums, and have higher disability costs, so there’s a pretty strong business case for it.

General Mills had a 67 percent quit rate over a one-year period with our onsite nurse and Chantix.