Letter of the Week: Breaking a bad habit

What a fortunate surprise learning about the readiness of area communities to increase the age of tobacco sale from 18 to 21 years old (10-23, A1, “KC effort aims to stop teens from smoking”).

After the increase of the tobacco sale age, the Kansas City area would experience a significant decrease in tobacco use among our adolescents and youth. Tobacco would be removed from 18- to 21-year-olds’ reach, hands and lungs.

To make sure we support the current 18- to 21-year-old smokers, we are ready to increase access to smoking-cessation interventions.

We would create opportunities to facilitate access to smoking cessation among younger smokers.

Our communities should aim at increasing knowledge about cessation treatment, including nicotine patches, gum and lozenges and state-funded quit-line counseling support.

To reach a tobacco specialist, go to www.kanquit.org or call 1-800-784-8669. We should also promote existing (text2quit) text-messaging programs designed to help smokers to quit.

These are exciting times.

Ana Paula Cupertino of Lee’s Summit was born and raised in Brazil. She is an associate professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health and director of the Juntos Center for Advancing Latino Health. She has an adult daughter and twin sons in high school.

This story was originally published November 8, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Letter of the Week: Breaking a bad habit."