For anyone interested in quitting smoking, there’s still time to get in on the OSU Quit Smoking Project.

Participants in the project will receive one-on-one support and up to eight weeks of nicotine patches.

The project, a research partnership between the Ohio State University College of Public Health, the Lawrence County Health Department and the OSU Extension in Lawrence County, is a study to find out how effective the support and patches are for smokers in the Appalachian region of Ohio.

So far approximately 30 people have joined the study.

“We ask that they stay in the program for 12 months even if they don’t quit,” Grace Zornes, the project’s lay educator, said. “We’re at a little over 50 percent. We’re looking for 60 (participants). (They can be) any ages or incomes. They have to want to quit smoking. We’re not going to convince them.”

Participants must be 18-years-old or older, have no recent major health problems, be a daily smoker and they must not be pregnant.

The smokers will be asked a set of questions at the start of the project, as well as three, six and 12 months later.

Zornes said Lawrence County has one of the highest percentages of smokers in the state.

According to the 2008 Ohio Family Health Survey, 37.1 percent of adults in the county smoke. This is in comparison with the statewide smoking rate in Ohio, which is 20.1 percent.

Anyone interesting in participating should call Zornes at (740) 616-9158.