“I’m quitting today – again,” said Hall, who sported a nicotine patch she’d gotten free by calling the American Cancer Society Quit Line.

“They work really great,” the 43-year-old student and mother said, adding her teenage children are “constantly on me” to quit smoking. That isn’t easy for someone who’s smoked for 21 years, she said.

But Hall was determined.

“I want to be a great role model,” she said.

Sitting behind the table at the Upgard Student Center was William Quaife, a 44-year-old TCC student and smokeout volunteer. He still smokes though he knows the dangers after more than 30 years puffing away.

He plans to quit someday but not today.

“It’s on my list,” he said.

Taking part in the 32nd annual event sounded simple: Give up smoking for the day. The goal was that one day might lead to two and then three and finally an end to an addiction that kills 47 million people nationwide, or a little more than one in five adults and teenagers.

Quitting isn’t easy, said George Hermosillo with the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department’s Tobacco Prevention Program:

A public service television advertisement from the state Department of Health shows a woman staring down from a second-floor apartment to the street, where a man is smoking and then tosses a half-smoked butt away.

Suddenly, the woman crashes through the window, drops onto the roof of a car and jumps up to grab the still burning butt. She takes a puff. The walk- off line: We know it’s hard.

But there is help, Hermosillo said. The Health Department teamed with MultiCare Health System to provide volunteers for smokers trying to quit or thinking about it.

From Western State Hospital in Steilacoom to TCC and area MultiCare hospitals and clinics, volunteers handed out quit-smoking kits and information on support groups and the health risks associated with smoking.

At TCC, Karen Garcia, a 33-year-old respiratory care program student, was in charge of the two preserved human lungs hanging from an air pipe. One, black and leathery, was a smoker’s; the other, pink and sponge-like, was from a non-smoker.

She explained the difference to students and asked if they wanted to touch them. Even when she offered a nylon glove there weren’t a lot of takers.

“Some people get a little grossed out,” she said.

When she held up the jar of cigarette tar collected and a jar labeled Clem’s Phlegm, students backed away.

“I didn’t know (cigarettes) did that much damage,” said Sarah Kaskins, 18, of Puyallup. She said she had quit a couple months ago for other reasons: the threat of wrinkles on her face, bad breath, social stigma.

At Tacoma General Hospital, the smokeout table was set up in the cafeteria. The lunch-time crowd was heavy and the table busy.

Besides handing out goodie bags, posters, pamphlets and pens, volunteers were signing up anyone who wanted to quit that day. Among them was Jacob Morris, 18, a hospital valet who had been smoking for about a year but said he couldn’t quit.

“Cold turkey didn’t work out,” he said. “I guess I just needed some help. I’m addicted.”

In his goodie bag was a $30-off coupon for an oral drug called Chantik made by Pfizer. A company representative was there to discuss the short-term drug, which cost about $120 per month.

Gail Downs, a supervisor for nutrition at Tacoma General, said the smokeout gave her a chance to quit again. She had attended a support class for two years and was able to quit, but then when her grandchild died 18 months ago she started again.

Smoking, she said, was attached to her “comfort things,” but in the last couple of support classes she said she came to realize she didn’t like smoking.

For Terry Westling of Tacoma, oral cancer helped prompted her to stop smoking last August with the help of a support group. She remembers throwing her last four cigarettes out the window of her car on Aug. 8, 2007.

She said she is doing fine physically and hasn’t smoked since.

She now volunteers with the support group that meets Thursday evening at St. Joseph’s Medical Center. She volunteered for the smokeout at Tacoma General, too

“You have to be there for other people,” she said. “I needed the support group.”

Mike Archbold: 253-597-8692

Smoking by the numbers

In 2006, the latest year for which figures from Pierce County are available:

 • 55 percent of the adults, or 308,000 people, have never smoked.

 • Another 25 percent, or some 141,000 adults, have quit smoking.

 • Another 112,000 adults smoke. That’s 20.8 percent of the county’s adults, down from 22.4 percent in 2003. Of residents 18 to 29 years old, 36 percent smoked in 2006.

 • About half of those who smoke will die prematurely with tobacco-related diseases.

 • On average 1,000 deaths in Pierce County are attributed to smoking each year – due to lung cancer, heart diseases, stroke, respiratory illness – among other diseases. Getting help

Tacoma Pierce County Health Department:

 • QuitSmart Classes: 1-800-485-0205 (available 24 hours a day)

 • QuitTobacco FREE Support Groups: 253-403-1144

 • MultiCare Helpline: 253-223-7538

 • Tobacco Cessation Program: 253-459-6702

 • Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department: 253-798-6001

 • Clean Air for Kids: Asthma Prevention: 253-798-2954

Washington State Quit Line:

 • 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669)

How to Get Involved

The Tobacco Advisory Board of Pierce County meets from 9 to 11 a.m. on the first Friday of each month in the basement classroom at Allenmore Hospital.