Rapid responses are electronic comments to the editor. They enable our users
to debate issues raised in articles published on bmj.com. A rapid response
is first posted online. If you need the URL (web address) of an individual
response, simply click on the response headline and copy the URL from the
browser window. A proportion of responses will, after editing, be published
online and in the print journal as letters, which are indexed in PubMed.
Rapid responses are not indexed in PubMed and they are not journal articles.
The BMJ reserves the right to remove responses which are being
wilfully misrepresented as published articles or when it is brought to our
attention that a response spreads misinformation.
From March 2022, the word limit for rapid responses will be 600 words not
including references and author details. We will no longer post responses
that exceed this limit.
The word limit for letters selected from posted responses remains 300 words.
In the beginning I was very sceptical when patients told me that they
quit smoking with the help of a book only (or after having attended a
seminar of only 6 hours). But when these reports became more frequent and
convincing (e.g. by a friend, a professor of chemistry) and I was able to
observe the sustainibility of these success stories, I became interested,
had a look at "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" and started to recommend the
book myself. But it was not until I found out in a survey among
occupational physicians and Austrian enterprises that the Carr seminars
were the counseling most frequently used at the workplace, that I decided
with colleagues to make an independent scientific evaluation of this
method.
The first study showed that every second smoker quit and stayed
abstinent for one year after the seminar (1). We presented this study at
the joint conference of the Austrian Society of Occupational Medicine and
the German Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and won a
prize, however, I still had doubts, because in this first study we had not
been able to validate our results with tests for urinary cotinine.
Therefore I decided with the occupational physicians of a large steel
plant, which had not taken part in the first study, for a second, larger
study with cotinine validation in a random sample after long term follow
up. Results were essentially the same as in the first study and are
available online (2).
References: 1. Hutter HP et al. 2006. Smoking cessation at the
workplace: one year success of short seminars. Int Arch Occup Environ
Health 79:42-48.
2. Moshammer H and Neuberger M 2007. Long term success of short smoking
cessation seminars supported by occupational health care. Addict Behav
DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.10.002.
A. Carr seminars evaluated independently
In the beginning I was very sceptical when patients told me that they
quit smoking with the help of a book only (or after having attended a
seminar of only 6 hours). But when these reports became more frequent and
convincing (e.g. by a friend, a professor of chemistry) and I was able to
observe the sustainibility of these success stories, I became interested,
had a look at "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" and started to recommend the
book myself. But it was not until I found out in a survey among
occupational physicians and Austrian enterprises that the Carr seminars
were the counseling most frequently used at the workplace, that I decided
with colleagues to make an independent scientific evaluation of this
method.
The first study showed that every second smoker quit and stayed
abstinent for one year after the seminar (1). We presented this study at
the joint conference of the Austrian Society of Occupational Medicine and
the German Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and won a
prize, however, I still had doubts, because in this first study we had not
been able to validate our results with tests for urinary cotinine.
Therefore I decided with the occupational physicians of a large steel
plant, which had not taken part in the first study, for a second, larger
study with cotinine validation in a random sample after long term follow
up. Results were essentially the same as in the first study and are
available online (2).
References: 1. Hutter HP et al. 2006. Smoking cessation at the
workplace: one year success of short seminars. Int Arch Occup Environ
Health 79:42-48.
2. Moshammer H and Neuberger M 2007. Long term success of short smoking
cessation seminars supported by occupational health care. Addict Behav
DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.10.002.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests