Nov. 19--Cindy Yohe recites her smoking cessation strategies like a memorized laundry list.

In the three times she has tried to quit smoking, Yohe has used patches, gum, hypnosis, breathing methods and hand exercises to emulate lighting up a cigarette.

The latter "looked ridiculous" and made people honk at her, the Beaumont marketing director recalled, gesturing with a salon-manicured hand.

And like all of her efforts to quit smoking, she lamented, nothing worked.

Yohe, 50, began smoking in the 1970s as a college student. She now smokes about six Benson and Hedges menthol cigarettes a day. On weekends, she can light up to a pack a day.

"I feel stupid, " Yohe said, seated outside of the Spindletop restaurant in downtown Beaumont Wednesday. "I can't believe something like this has so much control over me."

Like millions of Americans who smoke cigarettes, Yohe knows the risks of lighting up, but because smoking is a nicotine addiction, quitting proves difficult, researchers say.

Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week point to a curious irony: despite heavy tobacco taxes, smoking bans and commercials about the dangers of smoking, rates of smoking have increased for the first time in 15 years. Last year, the adult smoking rate climbed to 20.8 percent, the CDC reported with the most recent figures available. That number is a bit higher than in 2007, when the rate was at 19.7 percent.

"It's really sad," said Amanda McLauchlin, community coordinator at the Substance Abuse Division of the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission. "There is certainly no condemnation for people who smoke, but we encourage healthy lifestyles."

Read more in Thursday's Beaumont Enterprise.

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