Whether you’re considering quitting smoking, cutting back on the habit or just providing some research data, now is the time to sign up for a program that will allow you to do any of the three.

Starting today, Kinder Family Clinic, 595 Russell St., is accepting applications for a medical study on the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes. The study is being conducted by Family Nurse Practitioner Jona Ely as part of her doctoral thesis with the University of Northern Colorado.

Dr. Pamela Kinder said the research on the efficacy of e-cigarettes has been minimal, but she believes smokers who try the alternative method will find several benefits right away.

“They’re not exposing themselves and others to the harmful effects of tobacco products and secondhand smoke, and their risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease from carcinogens won’t be there anymore,” she said.

Kinder said participants can opt for other smoking cessation treatments, such as nicotine patches or nicotine gum, though the e-cigarettes are “the preferred option” to research the technology as much as possible.

“This is a real study, and we’ll be overseen by University of Northern Colorado, so there’s all kinds of criteria we have to meet,” she said. “They can even do two, like an e-cig and a prescription medication or an e-cig and quitting cold turkey, so she’ll go over all the options with them when they sign up.

“There’s a little test they do for a nicotine addiction score and even checking their personality to see how likely they are to stop. It’s pretty detailed.”

Kinder said the study will last through the remainder of the year and volunteers are asked to sign up soon.

“Anyone can participate at any time, but to get the full six months of data, it’ll be for the people who sign up in July,” Kinder said. “We’re hoping to enroll at least 30 patients, and anyone is welcome. I think anyone who does it will be a lot healthier.”

For more information, call 824-0911.

Craig Chamber prepares member perks

This month is a good time to be involved with the Craig Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber will be hosting its annual Member Appreciation Day July 25. The organization will distribute goodie bags and member-to-member benefit cards to businesses registered with them.

The benefit card includes special advantages for members to share among each other.

“We’ve got about 20 businesses signed up for it now, and they’re offering stuff like discounts on services and things like that,” Chamber representative Shannon Russell said.

Russell added that besides the incentive of the cards, the goodie bags are a good way for business owners to further promote themselves among fellow members.

“They can give us any amount of pens or things like that with their logo or something on it and we’ll give them out to the other businesses when we hand out the bags,” she said.

Russell said this is the first year the Chamber has hosted Member Appreciation Day in the summer.

“We used to always do it in March and we’d always have bad weather, so this year we decided to postpone it,” she said. “We’ll have Chamber balloons up all over town that day, so it’s going to look really festive.”

The deadline for businesses to sign up to be part of the member-to-member card is Friday. The deadline to submit materials for the goodie bags is July 20.

For more information, call Russell at 824-5689.

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