White said she would like to see health advocacy groups and federal agencies address the link between smoking and diabetes in education campaigns. She thinks aggressive messages that show the ugly side of smoking are effective.
Hall, who has patients who smoke, said doctors should talk to their patients about the smoking-diabetes connection. He said many smokers don’t quit until faced with a major health problem.
Raper, a graduate film student, said he’s not worried about the damage smoking has done to his body.
“I can’t control when I’m not going to be around. And whether I’m smoking or not smoking,” he said, “I don’t think really it makes much of a difference.”
He’s tried quitting, and wants to before his 30th birthday — mainly because he wants to stop spending the $80 to $100 month on his cigarettes. Smoking campaigns generally don’t speak to him because he said scare tactics don’t work on adults.
“You can stop kids from starting to smoke,” Raper said. “But getting somebody to quit at an older age is a completely different story.”