City Zeroes In on Staten Island Smokers
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The city’s health department has launched an aggressive anti-smoking campaign targeting Staten Islanders.
The advertising campaign includes two television spots and direct outreach to more than 1,000 Staten Island doctors. The agency also is distributing free nicotine patches at the Staten Island ferry terminal this week.
Officials said that despite a citywide decline in smoking rates in recent years, the smoking rate in Staten Island “has not budged” since 2002. Officials said more than one in four Staten Island adults smokes, compared with less than one in five in the rest of the city. Overall, 1 million New Yorkers are estimated to smoke. In Staten Island, nearly a third of those who enjoy cigarettes are considered “heavy” smokers, meaning they smoke more than 20 a day.
One in five pregnant women smoked in their third trimester, officials said.
