University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, February 12, 1992
9
New nicotine patch makes kicking the habit easier for some students
Skin device releases substance decreases withdrawal symptoms
By Katherine Manweiler Kansan staff writer
Juan Turbay started smoking when he was 14 years old, beginning a habit that resulted in repeated attempts to quit.
Turbay chews nicotine gum to counteract his withdrawal symptoms, which include edginess and hunger.
Kansan staff writer
He said that nicotine gum was helpful but that quitting smoking was incredibly difficult.
He used to smoke as much as one pack a day, but now he smokes less than five cigarettes a day, he said.
A new nicotine skin patch available at Watkins Memorial Health Center could make kicking the habit easier for some people, said Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins.
A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December stated that the patches had a 26 percent rate of effectiveness.
"I smoked for three years, and then quit for about four years," he said. "A year ago, I started again."
"When I smell cigarette smoke, I really feel like smoking," he said.
The self-adhesive patches are worn on the shoulder or upper chest. Yockey said the skin patch decreased nicotine
Turbay said he only smoked when he was around other people who were smoking.
Turbay, Bogota, Colombia, senior,
said he had tried to quit smoking per-
manently several times in the past year
and was trying to quit again.
withdrawal symptoms because it released a steady stream of nicotine into the bloodstream.
"It gives us an aid," Yockey said. "It is not a willpower pill. The bottom line is anybody who becomes a nonsmoker mentally has a 100 percent success rate."
He said people needed to stop smoking at a time of low stress.
The patches are available in three strengths. Every two weeks, the strength of the daily patches is reduced. Patients should stop using the patches after eight weeks of treatment.
"Six weeks after a college student stops smoking, their lungs look like a nonsmoker's lungs," Yockey said. "It is never too late for a college student to stop smoking."
John Baughman, chief pharmacist at Watkins, said he had filled nine prescriptions for the nicotine patches since early January, when the patches came onto the market.
It is important that people stop smoking completely once they start using the patches, Yockey said. Otherwise, they could overdose on nicotine.
Turbay said he was considering using the nicotine skin patches.
"I want to see if I can quit like this first," he said. "Since I can quit for four years before, I think I can quit for good now."
The patches range in cost between $2.15 and $2.65 a day, depending on the strength of the patch.
DETROIT — The outcome of Dow Corning Corp.'s debacle with its silicone gel breast implants depends on whether it can regain the trust of women who have the implants, analysts said yesterday.
Implant company worried about future
The nicotine patch is available at Watkins Memorial Health Center
Derek Nolen/KANSAN
The Associated Press
One expert compared the challenge to those faced by two other companies whose products were tainted by health concerns: A. H. Robbins Co., maker of the Dalton Shield, and Procter & Gamble Co., which made Relyt tampons.
Company documents released Monday showed it has known for two decades about potential health problems from leaking and rupture of its implants.
The company voluntarily pulled the implants from the market last month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a voluntary moratorium. Doctors said that rupture of the implants could cause a range of medical problems, including cancer and damage to the immune system.
At stake for Midland-based Dow Corning is its ability to remain viable whether or not it ever makes another breast implant.
Dow Corning took the first step in salvaging its image Monday by replacing its top executives with Keith McKen-
The relationship is exactly the same with a baseball team," said Mel Heltizer, a professor at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and a former Madison Avenue advertising and public relations executive." They fire the manager when they have a bad year."
non, an expert in corporate crisis management, analysts said.
"Yesterday's action is a turning
An estimated 1 million U.S. women have breast implants, mostly silicone gel implants, and twice as many have them worldwide. Dow Corning, a joint venture of Dow Chemical and Corning Inc., is the world's leading maker of silicone gel implants.
Some lawyers have estimated Dow Corning's potential liability in the breast implant case at $2 billion.
But more dangerous than any legal liability is the damage that could result from a frightened public left to wonder whether a product will cause them harm, said Gerald C. Meyers, a business consultant who wrote "When It Hits the Fan," a guide to managing corporate crises.
In New York Stock Exchange trading yesterday, Dow Chemical stock finished down $1 at $56.25. Cornring Inc. stock closed down $1.37 1/2 at $29.87 1/2
But Meyers said McKenna already had made a mistake by saying the company would be willing to offer financial assistance, and afford to have the implants removed.
point in my view," said Meyers, a former chairman and chief executive of American Motors Corp. "They've now made a move which shows they are trying to manage the situation rather than being controlled by it."
Dow Corning representative Scott Subburger defended McKennon's son.
"He was asked off the top of his head what kinds of things he was thinking about and that was one of the things he said he was a consideration. It was nothing he is implementing as a policy." Seeburger said.
"What the hell is wrong with him?" Meyers asked. "What are they going to do, establish a means test for deciding who gets financial help?"
"He helped turn that whole corporation around and the company re-established itself," he said.
McKennon, a Dow Chemical Co. executive vice president, performed well in helping steer that company out of potential public relations disasters concerning its Agent Orange defoliant and dioxin, Meyers said.
Meyers said Robbins mishandled
the crisis over the Dalkon Shield, and intrauterine birth control device that was blamed for thousands of spontaneous abortions, hysterectomies, infections and at least 18 deaths. The company eventually was forced into bankruptcy court.
"Dalton Shield went right over the cliff with the lawyers. The caseaule became so heavy there was no way the accountants would allow them to show anything other than a potential bankruptcy." Mevers said.
He praised Procter & Gamble's handling of reports linking Rely tampons to toxic shock syndrome. The company knew there was no way a definite link could be proved, but pulled the product anyway at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Dow Corning's problem is potentially more serious and ultimately harmful to Dow Chemical and Corning, who are desperately trying to avoid being tainted by their joint venture's problems, he said.
"The P&G guys said there is something at stake involved here," Meyers said.
"This one is all wrapped up in people's emotions," Meyers said. "We've got so many people involved. There's something inside of the exposure, and sex is involved."
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