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1 <br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: January 24, 2013 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. 5 -n <br />SUBJECT: Nicotine Replacement T <br />DEPARTMENT: Health PUBLIC HEARING: (Y /N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Colleen Bridger, 245 -2412 <br />PURPOSE: To develop a pilot program to assess the effectiveness of providing free Nicotine <br />Replacement Therapy (NRT) for Orange County residents who want to quit smoking. <br />BACKGROUND: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (US <br />DHHS): <br />• Tobacco is the single greatest cause of disease and premature death in America today, <br />and is responsible for more than 435,000 deaths annually; <br />• About 16% of Orange County Adults report being current smokers; <br />• Societal costs of tobacco - related death and disease approach $96 billion annually in <br />medical expenses and $97 billion in lost productivity, or an average of $4,260 per adult <br />smoker; <br />• Seventy percent (70 %) of all current smokers have expressed a desire to quit; <br />• Though tobacco dependence is a chronic disease that often requires repeated <br />intervention and multiple attempts to quit, research shows that effective treatments for <br />tobacco users exist and that delivering such treatments is cost - effective; and <br />• Research also shows that supplementing counseling with Nicotine Replacement Therapy <br />is more effective at helping smokers quit than just counseling alone. <br />On October 24, 2012 the Orange County Board of Health adopted a Smoke -free Public Places <br />Rule, and on November 20, 2012 the Orange County Board of Commissioners approved that <br />Rule by Ordinance. <br />Since many smokers want to quit and the Smoke -free Public Places Rule creates additional <br />incentives for smokers to do so, the Health Department is developing a pilot project to assess if <br />providing free NRT can significantly increase the number of smokers who quit in Orange <br />County. <br />There are approximately 15,000 adults who smoke in Orange County. If all of them wanted <br />NRT, the cost would be approximately $1.5 million — though health care and lost productivity <br />savings would be well over $50 million. For a five -month pilot program, however, staff is <br />estimating that 260 Orange County residents will participate at a cost of $25,000 (based on a <br />course of NRT given over a 4 -8 week period, up to $96 per person). This estimated cost of $96 <br />per person is based on an aggregate of average costs from various state and local smoking <br />