Calls to a statewide quit line are up in the wake of Tennessee's statewide ban on indoor smoking and a tripling of the state's tobacco tax, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Dec. 22.

About three-quarters of Tennessee smokers now say they want to quit, and calls to the Tennessee Quit Line have risen from between 400 and 700 monthly before the indoor smoking ban took effect in October to more than 3,000 per month now.

"I think it's a combination of fewer convenient places to smoke ... and just the growing social unacceptability" of smoking, said Jay Collum, coordinator of tobacco use, prevention and education at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department. "All of those things combined just are pushing people to think about it."

Cathy Taylor, Tennessee's assistant health commissioner, said state officials are "extremely excited about everything that is going on with the quit line. (People) that are calling in are highly motivated to quit."

The smoking ban applies to most indoor public spaces, while the state tobacco tax rose from 20 cents per pack to 62 cents per pack on July 1. "As we're looking at our economic struggles, with the price of gasoline and the cost of living these days, certainly tobacco is an expensive vice," Taylor said.