Great American Smokeout to celebrate thirty years

The American Cancer Society will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Great American Smokeout on Nov. 16. For three decades on the third Thursday in November, the Great American Smokeout has spotlighted the health dangers of tobacco use and the challenges of quitting.

That day, Americans who smoke and want to quit are urged to call the American Cancer Society's Quitline, a free telephone-based counseling program, at 1-800- ACS-2345, or to log on to www.cancer.org/smokeout, to embark on a personal plan to quit.

In addition, Americans are encouraged to work to protect the public from exposure to secondhand smoke by supporting smoke-free workplace policies in their local communities and states.

Lung cancer incidence and death rates have declined in men, and there are now more former adult American smokers (46.5 million) than current adult American smokers (45.1 million).

Lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women, claiming the lives of an estimated 162,460 Americans this year. In the U.S., tobacco use is responsible for nearly one in five deaths, or approximately 435,000 lives, annually. In October, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the latest figures on smoking among American adults, finding that the percentage of adult smokers has stayed the same for two years, and suggesting that declines seen during the past eight years may be leveling off.

The American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout event grew out of a 1971 event in Randolph, Mass., in which Arthur P. Mullaney asked people to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money they would have spent on cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund. In 1974, Lynn R. Smith, editor of the Monticello Times in Minnesota, spearheaded the state's first D-Day, or Don't Smoke Day. The idea caught on, and on Nov. 18, 1976, the American Cancer Society's California Division succeeded in getting smokers to quit for the day. The first national Great American Smokeout was held in 1977.

In addition to encouraging smokers to make a plan to quit, the Great American Smokeout is a day for Americans to join the American Cancer Society and its sister advocacy organization, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action NetworkSM (ACS CAN) in their efforts to advocate for smoke-free communities. The combination of smoke-free communities and smoking cessation support is critical to helping smokers quit and stay tobacco-free.