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Counseling available to pregnant smokers By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune For pregnant women who smoke and wish they didn't, help is now as close as a telephone. A national telephone support line opened this week offering counseling for women who want to quit smoking. It is funded with money from states' legal settlement with tobacco companies. The "Great Start" quit line will provide tobacco counseling for at least a year. Women who dial 866-66START (866-667-8278) can talk with counselors and get ideas about how to quit using tobacco. Operators will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Medical studies link smoking during pregnancy to one in every 10 infant deaths, said Dr. Cheryl Healton, president of the American Legacy Foundation, the nonprofit organization that organized the project. The foundation was created in 1999 after the Master Settlement Agreement between 46 state attorneys general and the tobacco companies, and contributions from the tobacco companies provide the vast majority of the foundation's income. Research also indicates smoking during pregnancy or exposing babies or young children to second-hand smoke after birth can cause many children's health problems, such as asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, brain damage, hearing problems and learning disabilities. The Great Start campaign includes an educational booklet that complements free counseling sessions; a video for pregnant smokers; and a Web site. Research studies show more than 400,000 women smoke during pregnancy each year in the United States. That figure represents about 13 percent of all pregnant women, and 18 percent of pregnant young women between the ages of 15 and 19. In Oregon, 15 percent of pregnant women smoke, including 25 percent of pregnant teens age 15 to 19. Counselors who field calls from pregnant women are trained by the American Cancer Society and provide information from the society's National Cancer Information Center. A counselor who declined to be named said response from Oregon women has been slow during the first days. For more information about the Great Start program, visit the Web site: www.americanlegacy.org Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.