By Linda Clarke  May 6 2011

Hardcore smokers at Canterbury Meat Packers are being offered a prize to give up. Some are spending $100 a week on cigarettes and smoking themselves to an early death.

Health promoter Karena Hart wants to change their minds, and has put up a big incentive.
She and CMP health nurse Sue Buchanan are running a competition for quitters with a first prize package worth $1500.
Smokers earn points for signing up to quit, bringing in family members who also want to stop smoking, and by passing smoke-alyser tests that detect carbon monoxide levels in the breath – the one with the most points at the end of May takes home the big prize.
But the meatworkers are tough nuts to crack.
The plant has a workforce of almost 1000 and about 400 are thought to be smokers.
In the outdoor smoking clusters they form during work breaks, they are not exactly receptive to Karena's invitation to join up.
But she is not deterred and says sowing the seed to quit is just as important.
The Quit and Win programme is deliberately personal.
Posters promoting the smoke-free way feature CMP workers Gillian McCloy-Long and Rachel Leckie, who have given up the cigarettes.
Others include children of CMP workers Western Bartlett and Hinerangi Heke, who say smoking is definitely not cool, and high-profile good role models like Hampstead School principal Peter Melrose, who chooses not to smoke.
Karena said the ambassadors were all good role models and smokers needed support to quit.
While only four have signed up for the CMP contest, 20 quit packs have been handed out, giving the health promoters hope the message will eventually get through.
Statistics show only a small number of people quit smoking on their first attempt; the average is 14 attempts before success.
Karena said the smoke-alysers were a valuable tool enabling smokers to see immediately how much carbon monoxide was in their system.
A heavy smoker might show up to 60 per cent.
"Heavy smokers don't realise how they are affected.
"It is not until they give it a go and try quitting that they start feeling
the benefits."
Karena said most smokers were motivated first by money or a prize. "Health benefits are not often the first driver."
CMP's first breath-test for quitters is on Monday.