Submitted by John R. Polito, Apr 26, 2007 09:42

NY City Health Dept. officials should be compelled to produce at least one survey showing that those using nicotine patches have higher real-world quitting rates than among those quitting without them. Nearly every real-world quitting methods survey to date (California, Minnesota, National Cancer Institute, Australia, UK NHS, Quebec, Western Maryland, London) has found that those quitting without use of the nicotine patch do as well as or better than those using patches. If true, it makes one wonder how in the world NY City Health Department Officials could possibly be influenced to spend $3 million precious taxpayer dollars on a product that provide absolutely zero benefit to quitters.

This link is to an article reviewing recent survey findings and these to two recent related articles: Nicotine Fix and Nixing the Patch If health officials contemplate giving nicotine patches to those who have already attempted quitting with them once and failed I'd encourage NY media to ask them to produce any study evidence (clinical or real-world) that show success rates for second-time patch users is higher than found in the 1993 patch recycling study by Tonnesen which found that 100% of second-time patch users relaped to smoking within 6 months.

Regards,

John R. Polito
Nicotine Cessation Educator

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