Over the past three months, Ohio, Cuyahoga County and the Cleveland Clinic have offered any Clinic patient and county resident free smoking cessation help. The Clinic says in that time over 4,600 free nicotine patch kits were given out and just under 5,000 calls were made to Ohio Tobacco Quit and Smoke Free Cleveland hotlines.
Clinic spokesman Oliver Hinkle says extending the smoking cessation program another 90 days gives county organizations more time to collaborate and expand in the coming years.
Oliver Hinkle: We expect to develop a coalition of those organizations that are involved in smoking cessation currently into a much broader program that will extend for a ten-year period hopefully with a target of reducing smoking in Cuyahoga County by 30%.
Hinkle says hotline operators follow up with callers to determine how many people who call, actually quit smoking. He says that data will be near the end of June. Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.