Miss American wants you! to quit smoking
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By PHIL GALEWITZ
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 17, 2008
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Miss America Kirsten Haglund says it’s not cool to smoke.
But she knows smokers need more than just a slogan or a message from celebrities to kick the habit.
Zerosmoke officials say it helps curb smokers’ desire for cigarettes, though U.S. studies have been inconclusive.
So for the past six months, she has been pitching Jupiter-based Zerosmoke Inc.’s smoking cessation products that use tiny magnets placed around the ear to eliminate the desire to smoke. At television and public appearances nationwide, Haglund has been promoting the alternative treatment as a simple way to help people quit.
“If you want to quit, it will work for you,” Haglund said Monday outside Cafe Chardonnay.
The federal government, the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association have not supported magnet therapy to help smokers quit.
Thursday is the annual Great American Smokeout - a challenge by the American Cancer Society to help smokers kick the habit for at least one day with the hope it will help them quit forever.
About one in five Americans smoke. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., killing about 438,000 people a year.
Magnet therapy has been used for thousands of years in Chinese medicine. However, studies conducted in the U.S. have yet to prove conclusively that it can reduce pain or help people quit smoking.
Zerosmoke President Paolo Internicola points to a European study of 800 smokers as evidence that his product works. And since 2007, Zerosmoke has sold 200,000 of the magnets, which retail for $39.95, Internicola said.
The Palm Beach Gardens resident discovered the product on a trip to Italy, where he lived before moving to Florida. He said the magnet helped him quit his own pack-a-day habit within two weeks. The company has nine employees and achieved most of its sales through infomercials and the Internet.
It also is available in CVS drug stores.
Asked about the lack of scientific evidence about Zerosmoke, Haglund said she has heard good anecdotal evidence that it works and is safe. She is not being paid as a spokesperson for Zerosmoke, which has agreed to donate a portion of its sales to the nonprofit Miss America organization.
“It’s a way of helping smokers quit that is not putting chemicals back in their bodies,” said Haglund, 20, who has never smoked.
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