For the next three months the state Department of Public Health and Human Services will be making random calls to Montana residents, asking for their opinion on tobacco-related issues.

Twenty-five hundred participants will be chosen at random through mid June. Questions will range from awareness of health issues related to tobacco use to opinions on the Clean Indoor Air Act. The results will offer answers to health officials and legislators.

"Is our message getting out there on tobacco use prevention, which is really a key component of the survey?" explained DPHHS spokesperson Jon Ebelt. "It gives us a good gage of 'is our message getting out there'? Do people really understand the serious health effects of using tobacco?"

The department has conducted the annual survey since 2000 and finds that statistics show interesting results. "From the last survey we found that 66% of smokers say they want to quit. Forty-nine percent of the smokers have tried to quit in the past year. The list goes on, but it gives us a good indication of where we're at and where we want to get to," Ebelt continued.

Results from 2006 show that 17% of polled Montanans are smokers and 60% of them were advised by a health care provider to quit. Twelve percent of Montanan men use spit tobacco.

Last year 84% of those surveyed supported the Clean Indoor Air Act. While the department doesn't expect significant changes from last year, they do hope to see some changes as a result of new cessation programs such as the Montana Quit Line and free quit-smoking tools like nicotine replacement patches.

The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete and this year callers will be able to randomly dial cell phones, even numbers on the "no call" list. The department says the phone survey has been an efficient method of collecting information.