Dial in to quit, smoking that is. To help smokers kick that butt, Johnson and Johnson has set up a national tobacco cessation quit line-1800 227787.
J&J sells Nicorette, a sugar-free nicotine gum that aids smokers trying to give up the habit. The national quit line, a toll-free number, will be operational between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. from May 31, World No Tobacco Day.
The tobacco-cessation product, Nicorette works through providing therapeutic (clean) nicotine slowly and in lesser quantities than what a cigarette or chewing tobacco provides but also just enough to satisfy the cravings.
The quit line is designed to help tobacco users by answering their queries, formulating a personalised quit plan depending on their tobacco consumption pattern (cigarettes, beedis and other forms of chewing tobacco) and supporting them through the entire 12 week journey of quitting tobacco through a combination of phone calls, messages, emails and hand deliveries, a note from J&J said. And the tobacco cessation counseling would be available in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali, besides English.
Studies show that proactive telephone counseling is an effective intervention for tobacco cessation and achieves 56 per cent increase in quit rates as compared to self-help, since a large number of tobacco users want to quit but do not know how to do it effectively, the note said.
The World Health Organisaition also recommends quit lines as an essential part of tobacco-control efforts since they are easily accessible, cost-effective and proven tools to increase the quit success rate, it added.
In addition to the telephone counselling, the smoker calling in could also approach the local Tobacco Intervention Initiative centre of the Indian Dental Association (IDA). Each center has dentists trained in tobacco cessation to help tobacco users give up their addiction and improve their health, the note said, adding there are 500 such centres across India.
“We want to partner with quitters through their entire journey by providing them the entire infrastructure and support that is needed to quit. The quit line is the latest addition to Nicorette’s tobacco cessation infrastructure that consists of an active Facebook page and atext-to-quit service,” said J&J’s Mr Tushar Mudeshwar, Vice- President Marketing, Consumer Division.