Blue-collar workers targeted for stop-smoking help.

(From CBS Marketwatch (Stories))

Byline: Ken Ward Jr.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Among the factors scientists have long known affect whether a person smokes -- education, race, gender and income -- another variable appears to have a growing impact: One's job.

"A person's occupation is a distinct and significant risk factor for smoking," says Dr. Elizabeth Barbeau, assistant professor of society, human development and health at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health.

It's not just people with lower incomes and education levels who are more likely to smoke -- those in working-class occupations such as mechanics, construction workers, laborers, machine operators, freight stock and material handlers are also more likely to light up, according to research Barbeau co-authored in the February 2004 edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

But just because blue-collar workers are more likely to smoke than their professional counterparts doesn't mean they don't want to extinguish the habit as much, she says. In fact, working-class smokers are just as likely to have tried to quit in the last year, with 44 percent of current smokers across all socioeconomic and demographic groups attempting to butt out at least once.

"There…