Fair to offer tobacco survey
Warrensburg native Jill Murphy remembers going to the Washington County Fair on warm summer nights with her family.
Now a professor at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, Murphy wants to travel back to the county fair in Easton this year to study the smoking and tobacco-use habits of rural residents.
She’s concerned that while anti-tobacco campaigns have hit home to residents in suburban areas, low-income smokers in rural areas have not received the message.
Murphy plans to set up kiosks at the fairgrounds to poll tobacco users on their habit. She has received a $100,000 grant from the American Legacy Foundation, an anti-tobacco organization that has been behind national quit smoking campaigns, including the "truth" ads.
"What I really want to find out is what people have tried in the past and what they might be interested in trying," Murphy said. "New York state is actually is a leader in tobacco control. We have a strong clean indoor air law."
The fair survey will be in a touch-screen format instead of a normal paper questionnaire.
"The fairs such as a the Washington County Fair and the Smoker Eaters Jamboree — they draw people," she said. "As I was just trying to think creatively about different kind of research I could work on, I thought the fair would be a neat kind of setting. We want to make it fun and inviting to people."
New York has made inroads in combating tobacco use over the years, Murphy said. Tobacco use among teenagers in the state stands at 18 percent, which is slightly below the national average, according to the Centers for Disease Control. About 13 percent of adults in New York report using tobacco regularly, well below the 20 percent average nationwide.
Murphy pointed to the efforts of the state’s (866) NY-QUITS hot line, which encourages tobacco users to stop.
"Those broad efforts have worked except among rural folks," Murphy said. "We still see high rates of smoking among rural populations and smokeless tobacco use. We know the rural population is one we have to focus on."
In some cases, 24 percent of rural residents will be regular users of tobacco, she said.
Mark St. Jacques, the general manager of the Washington County Fair, said he has talked with Murphy extensively about the project. It sounded like a good idea to him, he said.
"I’ve talked to her at length," he said. "It sounds pretty interesting. It’s something of interest to everybody, whether you’re smoker or not a smoker."
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