NATCHEZ &045;&045; Cigarette smoking causes more than 440,000 deaths in the United States each year. Tobacco use can lead to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and to cancer.

Furthermore, health care costs relating to smoking exceed $157 billion in the United States each year, breaking down to about $3,391 in health-related expenses costs per smoker.

Statistics were not the reason Nancy Corley wanted to stop smoking, however. A pack-a-day smoker for maybe 50 years, she was fed up with the habit.

&uot;I was tired of being shoved out of airports and restaurants. It had gotten to be a nasty habit and an inconvenience,&uot; said Corley, 74, who joined other smokers in the first program of its kind offered earlier this year at Natchez Regional Medical Center.

Through The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, two medical professionals at Natchez Regional have trained with A Comprehensive Tobacco Center (ACT) at the University of Mississippi Medical School in Jackson and now are leading the free, six-week program for smokers ready to quit the habit.

A session will begin July 26 at 5:30 p.m. at Natchez Regional and continue each Monday for six weeks. After that, the next session will begin Aug. 18 and will be held in the mornings. Anyone interested in the program should call (601) 443-2258 for more information.

The class includes a manual for each participant, free nicotine replacement therapy and

individualized help for each person based on his or her habit.

&uot;What is different about this program is that we don’t use aversion techniques. We don’t hypnotize,&uot; said nurse Simmons Iles, education coordinator at the medical center and co-director of the stop-smoking program with respiratory therapist Joe Hudson.

&uot;We don’t stand up and lecture. We facilitate their learning how to unlearn the habit,&uot; she said.

Corley had tried other methods of giving up smoking, including hypnotism and acupuncture. &uot;And you can’t do it by watching tapes, either. I have a stack this high,&uot; she said, gesturing to illustrate.

The Natchez Regional program worked for her. And she is convinced that she really has become a nonsmoker this time. &uot;It was not that hard. And should I backslide, I know what to do.&uot;

The tobacco center in Jackson is in its fourth year, funded through the state tobacco settlement, federal and foundation grants and contracts with pharmaceutical companies. The response to the ACT program &045;&045; 100 to 125 new patients each month &045;&045; prompted officials there to find other places in the state to offer it.

&uot;They came to us to ask us to start the clinic here,&uot; Iles said. &uot;Now they’re hoping to have clinics within a 50-mile range of everyone in the state.&uot;

Peggy Burns was another member of the first class at Natchez Regional. &uot;I feel I’m lucky to be here. I’m 67, and none of my siblings have lived as long as I have,&uot; she said. &uot;I thought smoking calmed me down. But I’m not sure it did.&uot; She stopped smoking on May 19 after 40 years of smoking two packs a day.

At one of the first meetings, the patients tell how many years they have smoked. &uot;We tell them they’re not going to learn to stop in a week,&uot; Iles said.

A little support from each other and some peer pressure among the class members are good motivations, Iles said. Perhaps the best motivation is the measuring of carbon monoxide each week.

&uot;We measure so they get a sense of how they are doing as they cut back each week,&uot; Iles said.

Burns and Corley agreed the carbon monoxide numbers each week were important motivators. &uot;The object is to get the carbon monoxide to zero. I was at about 20 in four weeks. Now I’m down to zero,&uot; Corley said. So is Burns.

Iles said the goal is to get class members to set a quit date by the fifth session. &uot;They don’t have to necessarily quit that week but at least set a date,&uot; she said.