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Study: Half of Indiana smokers tried to quit

MERRILLVILLE, Ind. — A new study has found that more than half of Indiana residents who smoke tried to quit in 2011, although the state still has one of the nation’s highest smoking rates.

The Ball State University study shows that about 26 percent of Indiana residents smoke, giving the state the nation’s seventh-highest total in 2011. The same year, 57.5 percent of Indiana’s smokers tried to quit smoking for at least one day.

Susan Gleason of the Tobacco Education and Prevention Coalition for Porter County tells The Post-Tribune that most people really want to quit, but nicotine creates a powerful addiction that’s “as bad as heroin.”

Indiana’s smokers had health care bills of $4.7 billion in 2010, a year in which 9,700 Hoosiers died from smoking-related ills.

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