Calls to a national smoking quit line more than tripled when the phone number was publicized on TV in the wake of the cancer death of ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, Medical News Today reported July 6.

ABC promoted the 1-800-QUIT NOW hotline during a series of World News Tonight stories titled, "Quit to Live: Fighting Lung Cancer." The number connected callers to state counselors who offered advice to smokers about quitting.

"It's not enough just to build a (smoking cessation) service. You also have to advertise it," said Erik Augustson of the National Cancer Institute's Tobacco Control Research Branch. "We know that these things work. We know that in general, when people call and participate, the customer satisfaction tends to be very high. You really talk to a person who talks to you about what's going on (in your life), but very few people use these services."

Hotline calls rose from 9,723 in October 2005 to 29,942 while the series ran, but fell again to 8,966 when the coverage ended.

The research appears in the July/August 2007 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.