What is a Smokerlyzer.
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What is a Smokerlyzer® and how is it used to help smokers?
Smokerlyzer® is
the trade name for Bedfont Scientific's line of
breath carbon monoxide (CO) monitors and testers. A
Smokerlyzer® measures the level of carbon monoxide (CO) in a
person’s lungs and bloodstream through a non invasive breath test. The test is simple and only
requires a person to breathe into the Smokerlyzer® and within
seconds it yields a personalized reading.
A Smokerlyzer® works very much like the breathalyzer that the
police use to test a person for alcohol.
Smokerlyzers®
were first used by researchers back in the early 1970’s as a tool to
confirm whether or not people were smoking during research studies.
What researchers quickly discovered was that smokers had a motivational
response to the Smokerlyzer® and its results. Smokerlyzers®
quickly found their way into quit smoking programs where they are used
as part of the treatment to help smokers stop smoking.
When you test a person for
their CO level using a Smokerlyzer®, you are giving them what
is known as biomarker feedback, which makes a test on the
Smokerlyzer® very similar to a blood pressure test or a
cholesterol test. Both of these tests give a person biomarker
feedback – one about a person’s blood pressure level and the other about
their cholesterol level. There are many benefits to monitoring a
person’s blood pressure level or their cholesterol level while they are
being treated for high blood pressure or high cholesterol - both the
patient and the treatment provider get to see how severe the problem is
and this information helps them decide on an appropriate approach to
treating the problem. We monitor a person’s CO level with a
Smokerlyzer® while they are being counseled to quit smoking
for the same reasons. Below is a brief description of the three
main benefits of breath CO monitoring.
Feedback : “Seeing is believing”.
It would be difficult to find a person who doesn’t know smoking is bad
for them, right? So why do you need the Smokerlyzer® to
show smokers evidence of the dangerous toxins that they take in when
they smoke? Well, it’s the same reason a person needs their blood
pressure or their cholesterol checked - it is the first step in
treating high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Scientific
research has shown that seeing those initial results plays an important
role in correcting the problem. 1,2,3,4,5,6
Indicator of dependence: The reading on the
Smokerlyzer® doesn’t tell you how many specific cigarettes a
smoker is smoking, but rather, it tells you more about their smoking
habit and their dependence to nicotine. This is because CO goes
hand and hand with the nicotine the smoker is trying to draw out of the
cigarette. The more nicotine they go after, the more CO that comes
along for the ride. So, generally speaking, the higher a smoker’s
CO level, directly after smoking a cigarette, the higher their
dependence to nicotine. How is that information going to help the
counselor or the smoker? There is plenty of literature
available that indicates that smokers are notoriously bad at accurately
self-reporting how much they smoke. Many smokers find out that
they actually smoke more than what they are telling people they smoke.
This begs the following question - If a smoker is treated as a pack a
day smoker when they really smoke two packs a day, could this be a
possible reason they ultimately fail to stop smoking OR resume smoking
after quitting for a period of time? 1,3,4,7
Measure of success: When a smoker
initially stops smoking, besides saving money, there aren’t a lot of
tangible, immediate benefits that the smoker can see. It’s
actually a bit rough going at first as any smoker will tell you.
Those benefits will eventually materialize, but it takes time. One
of the most important aspects of the Smokerlyzer® is that it
allows the smoker to track their progress and see real, instant results
of stopping smoking - just like a person on a diet would use a weighing
scale to see if they are losing weight on the diet. Smokers can
see the benefits of stopping smoking within 1 to 2 days of not smoking.
Seeing their body improve after they stop smoking is very important
because it is reassurance that their approach to quitting smoking is
working and it is extremely rewarding for the smoker to see this!
1,2,3,4,5,6
One might assume that once
the smoker has stopped smoking, the Smokerlyzer® becomes a
useless tool because if the smoker hasn’t cheated and smoked, they will
always register at non-smoker levels on the Smokerlyzer®.
The reality is somewhat surprising. Thousands upon thousands of
smoking cessation counselors and professionals from across the U.S. and
Canada have told us consistently over the years that it is the
Smokerlyzer® that brings the smoker (or former smoker) back
week after week. These former smokers never seem to tire of seeing
their readings because it is the one piece of evidence that they can
hold onto as they fight a very powerful addiction.
Many non-smokers don’t
immediately understand the benefits of breath CO monitoring and how it
can help smokers attempting to kick the habit. If you are a
smoking cessation treatment professional and are not sure if a
Smokerlyzer® is right for the work that you do, please give
us a call at
1-800-707-5751 and a representative will be happy to
discuss how a Smokerlyzer® can help you, help a smoker.
If you would like to learn
more about our Smokerlyzer® line, please see the information
below or feel free to contact our customer service department for more
information at
1-800-707-5751 or via email at
info@covita.net
.
How do
you know which Smokerlyzer
is right for you and the work that you’re doing?
Bedfont Smokerlyzer®
customers usually fall into one of two categories: Individuals
working with smokers to help them stop smoking, etc. or clinical
researchers who need a tool that allows them to chemically validate
their work.
The first group,
Individuals working with smokers to help them stop smoking, etc.,
includes everyone from professional smoking cessation counselors,
respiratory therapists, school counselors, human resource professionals,
teachers as well as many other individuals to numerous to list here.
For these individuals, Bedfont offers two unique Smokerlyzers®
- they are the piCO+ and the COmpact Smokerlyzers®.
The piCO+ breath CO
monitor is the gold standard in breath CO monitoring for tobacco
treatment and is the ideal tool if you would like to give smokers
detailed information about their smoking habit. The piCO+
offers two forms of biofeedback: ppm (Parts Per Million, which is
the level of CO in the lungs) and %COHb (carboxyhemoglobin, which
is the level of CO in the blood). The ppm level is displayed in
one ppm increments and the range is from 1-100. A Bedfont
representative would be happy to explain some of benefits of the piCO+
monitor.
If you would like to learn
more about our piCO+ monitor, please
click here to be taken to the product
page for the piCO+ Monitor.
The COmpact
Smokerlyzer® was designed as a screening tool for brief
interventions/encounters with smokers. The COmpact
Smokerlyzer®offers six possible readings, each of which is a
ppm range. For example, a reading of 1 ppm is 0-6 ppm. A
reading of 2 ppm is 7-11 ppm and each subsequent level is broken-down in
a similar manner. The COmpact is an ideal tool for
physician practices or pharmacies that simply want to offer smokers
quick but limited feedback on their smoking habit with the ultimate goal
of encouraging them to seek treatment offered by a professional
cessation counselor. The COmpact is not recommended as a tool
for repeat or follow-up testing or to follow individuals through a
cessation program. For repeat or follow-up testing, Bedfont
strongly recommends our piCO+ model which will allow you to
provide more detailed feedback to smokers.
If you would like to learn
more about our COmpact Smokerlyzer®, please
click here to go to our COmpact
page.
For those conducting
clinical research, Bedfont offers its Micro+ line of Smokerlyzers.
Bedfont’s Micro+ line has
been the gold standard in breath CO monitoring for clinical research for
the past 20 years. While all of Bedfont’s breath CO monitors
utilize the same sensor technology, the Micro+
line offers researchers features
that are ideal to clinical research. Chief among these features is
the broad ppm range of the monitor. While it is rare to get
readings around or even over 100 ppm, these readings do occur from time
to time within certain populations of smokers and the Micro+
ensures that these readings will
not be missed. The Micro+ line
offers researchers the ability to read from 0-250 ppm in one ppm
increments along with the equivalent %COHb reading,
simultaneously. While the Micro+
line is ideally suited for
clinical research, it can also be used for smoking cessation treatment
like the piCO+ monitor.
If you would like to learn
more about our Micro+ line, please
click here to be taken to the product
page for the Micro+ Monitor.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions at 1-800-707-5751 or via email at info@covita.net .
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Citations:
1/ Jarvis MJ, Belcher M, C Vesey, DCS Hutchinson. Low cost carbon monoxide monitors in smoking assessment. Thorax 1986; 41: 886-887.
2/ Jamrozik K, Vessey M, Fowler G, Nicholas W, Parker G, Van Vunakis H. Controlled trial of three different antismoking interventions in general practice. British Medical Journal 1984 288: 1499-1503
3/ Fagerstrom KO. Assessment of the smoker who wants to quit. Monaldi Archives Chest Disease 2001; 56: 2, 124-127
4/ Steele C. Is Smoking a Disease? Journal of Smoking-Related Disease. 1994:55 (Suppl 1);219-222
5/ Wald Nicolas J, Idle Marianne, Boreham Jillian, Bailey Alan.
Carbon monoxide in breath in relation to smoking and carboxyhaemoglobin
levels. Thorax 1981, 36: 366-369
6/ McClure Jennifer B. Are Biomarkers Useful Treatment Aids for Promoting Health Behavior Change? American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2002; 22 (3), 200-207
7/ Jarvis Martin J., Tunstall-Pedoe Hugh, Feyerabend Colin, Vessey
Cyril, Saloojee Yussuf. Comparison of Tests Used to Distinguish Smokers
from Nonsmokers. American Journal of Public Health 1987, Vol. 77, No.
11, 1435-1438
