$10 Million Added to Tennessee Stop Smoking Effort

Tennessee health officials hope an additional $10 million in the new fiscal year will bring more calls to the stop smoking hotline. The number 1-800-QUIT NOW is the state's primary smoking cessation effort.

The hotline began last year and has logged only about 2,000 calls.

Tennessee was among the last of the states to get a hotline, which urges smokers to quit. State Health Commissioner Susan Cooper says even the additional $10 million isn't good enough. Cooper wants to give grants to educate health care workers on stop smoking programs, to pay for anti-smoking marketing campaigns directed at young people, to promote the hotline and to offer nicotine therapies, such as a nicotine patch, for free.

More than one in four Tennesseans smoke. Only Kentucky and Indiana have higher smoking rates.