Thursday, 9/15

I wonder if our rate has gone up or gone down?

Monday, I wrote about getting cigarette smoke blown in my face.  Then yesterday, in quite the coincidence, I saw a statistic released by the Centers for Disease Control showing that the smoking rate in the US has gone down to 14% overall.  It's the lowest rate in history, and a sign that people are finally realizing that there is nothing at all good about exposing yourself and others to cancer-causing chemicals.

Maybe there's a little hope for the world yet.

About a decade and a half ago I was curious about Marquette County's smoking rate (I think for a “What's Up, UP” question), and in the course of research found that Marquette County had the lowest smoking rate in the entire state.  Back in 2007, Marquette County's smoking rate was at 14%, which is what the rest of the country is at now.  So in the past 14 years, has Marquette County's rate dropped even further, or were we just a decade (and change) ahead of our time?

I'd be curious to know.

I know people still smoke in Marquette County.  Trust me, I know that for sure—every so often we have a contest winner come in to pick up a prize reeking so strongly of cigarette smoke that we have to open our doors just to air out our lobby.  I don't know if those listeners are aware they smell that bad, or if they're just nose-blind, but it's bad.  Really, really bad.  So I do know that some people in Marquette County still smoke.

I also know that a lot of temporary residents and tourists smoke, as well.  Over the past few months I have seen a marked increase of people walking down the Front Street hill outside of the station, looking at the buildings and putting away on their cancer sticks.  So at any one time a chunk of the people in Marquette County who smoke aren't from here (and, trying hard not to stereotype, I've noticed that a lot of those smokers I observed had either just left the Landmark Inn up the hill or had just parked cars with out of state license plates).

Spending a lot of time walking around downtown Marquette, you notice now apparent that can, on occasion, be.  In fact, Loraine and I have a running gag going that if we see someone smoking on the sidewalk, it's most usually a tourist, especially when they blow smoke in the direction of passers-by.

Yoopers are just too gosh darned polite to do that.  Except, just perhaps, the smokehole who did it to me Monday morning.

But overall, I have no idea how many residents of Marquette County still smoke.  I have no idea if we still have the lowest tobacco usage rate in Michigan, or if we've just settled in amongst the pack.  Maybe I'll have to do a little more digging; if any of you know, please share.  No matter what, though, it's nice to see that the country as a whole has decided that smoking sucks.

Something that people around here started realizing and putting into practice over a decade ago.

(jim@wmqt.com)