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Quitting
Anyone who has tried to stop smoking knows
how hard it is. The good news? It can be done.
By Suzanne Hall
TIME
AMY Burke would love to quit smoking.
But when juggling culinary school, three
children and a disabled husband gets to
be a little too much, she reaches for that
cigarette. That her husband is a heavy
smoker doesn’t help, either. A student at
Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo., she’s
tried cold turkey, tapering off and the
nicotine replacement patch, all to no avail.
“I always ending up needing just that one
cigarette, which, of course, leads back
to being a full-blown smoker every time,”
she says.
Academy, an Alexandria, Va.-based military
facility, also has tried several times and
methods to quit. His cold-turkey approach
lasted six months. A nicotine patch worked
only as long he wore it. He had the same
result when taking the nicotine-blocking
prescription drug Chantix.
“When I wasn’t smoking, my dentist
complained about how badly I was
grinding my teeth, and my coworkers
bought me a pack
to relieve their
tension,” he says.
Health Services Administration, Rockville,
Md., show that 44.7% of full-time workers
in foodservice-related occupations had
smoked within the past month. The rate for
construction occupations was close, but still
lower at 42.9%. (Library workers are among
the least frequent smokers at 12.3%.)
Even more discouraging than these
statistics is the fact that in the same survey,
50.2% of foodservice workers in the 18-
25 age group reported smoking in the
past month. That’s a wake-up call to chefs
who see themselves as mentors, as well
as to culinary schools. It’s also why some
Success eludes Dan Thomas, as well.
Catering supervisor for the Jefferson
County Public Schools, Louisville, Ky., he’s
quit several times, most recently, for seven
months. “I was doing well, then I changed
jobs,” he says. “I was feeling stressed and
started smoking again last January.”
Vance Wilson, CC, instructor/chef at
Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation
SMOKING
STATISTICS
These culinarians are not
alone. The foodservice industry
includes more smokers than
the construction trades. In
fact, results from the 2008
National Survey on Drug Use
and Health, conducted by the
Substance Abuse & Mental
