Smoker Finds She Can Live With Clean Air

What’s it like to be a veteran smoker in an office that suddenly restricts it?

“When the company initially announced they were going to a nonsmoking policy, most of us who smoked were panic-stricken,” recalled Debra Newberry, 47, executive secretary at Pacific Mutual. She had been smoking since she was an 18-year-old freshman in college.

Newberry’s first move--after last January’s announcement that the company would bar smoking in all company offices on July 1, permitting smokers only in designated outdoor areas--was to enroll in a smoking cessation course provided by the company.

For a time, it worked. But after a few months of going cold turkey, she fell off the wagon and began smoking again. Still, with the help of the course--and the limited opportunities to smoke at her Fountain Valley office--Newberry said she has cut back from a 2 1/2-pack-a-day habit to one pack every two or three days.

In an interview, she outlined her thoughts about smoking, her struggle to stop and the way she lives within her company’s smoking rules.

Newberry said she now lives comfortably within company rules, but there was an adjustment period. “The hardest part was reaching for a cigarette, and then saying, ‘Where’s my ashtray? (and then realizing) ‘We can’t smoke in here,’ ” she said.

Under Pacific Mutual’s smoking rules, there is no limit to the number of cigarette breaks an employee may take, Newberry said. “ . . . You can’t light up at your desk. But you can go out and smoke anytime you feel like it--anytime.” As long as the privilege is not abused, “there is no problem.”

But she reminisced about the relaxing effect of enjoying a cigarette at her desk.

“There are times as a smoker, when you feel like kicking back in a project, altering your mental process,” Newberry said. “You (would) finish one project and before you start another, you light up a cigarette. Then the phone would ring, and you’d light up and talk. You may take several puffs of it, and it may sit in the ashtray.”

But just the knowledge that a lit cigarette was at hand was relaxing, she said. “It provided a time frame in which you can regroup your thinking if you’re working on a project. It offered that subconscious state, I suppose, in which one is just in limbo for a few minutes.”

‘Definitely Pleasurable’

Asked if she felt addicted to cigarettes, Newberry said, “No. . . . It was a habit . . . a psychological habit,” but definitely a pleasurable one. “I happened to smoke the lowest nicotine cigarette on the market . . . which is like smoking nothing.” Her cigarettes are so low in nicotine that “friends say, ‘Why bother to even smoke?’ ”

However, smoking a single one of these cigarettes does give her “a slight rush,” Newberry said. “The closest thing I can describe it to is when you’ve been out shopping. You have on high heels and have been walking all day. First you . . . fix yourself a cup of coffee or a drink, and kick off the shoes and let everything relax.”

Newberry said she does like her fresh air smoking breaks--either on an outdoor patio near the company cafeteria, where canopied tables are located near a fountain, or when it rains, under a covered loading dock in the back of the building. Often male co-workers gather at the loading dock to smoke and conduct business, she said.

Yet Newberry said she really does not mind the company’s workplace smoking rules.

“Actually I’m grateful. I do want to quit,” she said. “I know it isn’t healthy . . . My father died of emphysema--and I do not ever, ever, want to be in that physical situation.”

SURVIVAL STATIONS

For Great American Smokeout participants who are giving up the habit and “adopters” bringing smokers who are quitting, the survival stations will offer support, information, encouragement, tips on quitting and munchies (carrots and celery sticks, candy and gum).

Anaheim: Cultural Arts Center, 931 N. Harbor Blvd. Anaheim Hills Realty, 100 S. Imperial Highway

Brea: Brea Community Hospital, 380 W. Central Ave.

Buena Park: City Clerk’s office, City Hall, 6650 Beach Blvd.

Costa Mesa: American Cancer Society, 1503 South Coast Drive.

Fountain Valley: Hughes Market, 9119 Garfield Ave.; Collins Corners, Brookhurst and Ellis streets; Fountain Valley High School (for young people), 17816 Bushard St.

Fullerton: Fullerton Printing, 642 W. Commonwealth Ave.; St. Jude Hospital, 101 E. Valencia Mesa Drive; Fire stations: No. 1, 312 E. Commonwealth Ave., No. 2, 1732 W. Valencia Drive, No. 3, 700 S. Acacia Ave., No. 4, 3251 N. Harbor Blvd., No. 5, 2555 E. Yorba Linda Blvd. and No. 6, 1500 N. Gilbert St.; Cal State Fullerton: Health Center, quad in front of University Center.

La Palma: La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, 7901 Walker St.

Placentia/Yorba Linda: Yorba Linda St. Jude Hospital, 16850 E. Bastanchury Road.

Seal Beach: Corner of Main and Central streets.

San Clemente: Ralphs Market, 85 Calle Industrias; Alpha Beta, 903 S. El Camino Real.

San Juan Capistrano: Vons Market, 32410 Camino Capistrano; The Medicine Shoppe, 31952 Del Obispo St.

STOP SMOKING CLASSES

For smokers interested in quitting, here are some of the classes around Orange County that can help you reach that goal: American Cancer Society

751-0441

“Fresh Start” classes. $10 donation for four 90-minute classes. Classes are given at many county locations. American Lung Assn. of Orange County

835-LUNG

“Freedom from Smoking.” Eight two-hour sessions for $45. Classes are held evenings, twice a week for a month, at county hospitals. SmokeEnders, Irvine

1-800-828-4357

Offers corporate programs and public programs at hospitals. Uses combination behavior modification and detoxification techniques. Six two-hour classes. Schick Center for the Control of Smoking & Weight, Orange

558-8404

“Schick Stop Smoking Program” for corporate and public use. Five-day program one hour a day, Monday through Friday. The cost is $575 per person, with a money-back guarantee. Free demonstration offered. Smokers Anonymous

772-5330

Lists time and location of meetings. A 12-step support group modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous. Classes are held Tuesdays in Anaheim, Monday in Yorba Linda and Newport Beach, Thursday in Costa Mesa and Friday in Los Alamitos. No charge.