| The Great American SmokeOut |
It has been agreed that The Great American SmokeOut shall fall upon the third Thursday in November, every year.
Good day to quit? You bet! The American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout is more than 28 years old this year.
The Great American Smokeout has helped to spotlight the dangers of tobacco use and the challenges of quitting, but more importantly, it has set the stage for the cultural revolution in tobacco that has occurred over this period.
Because of the efforts of individuals and groups that have led anti-tobacco efforts, there have been significant landmarks in the areas of research, policy and the environment.
"What we have been doing can be characterized as the denormalization of smoking as an acceptable behavior," said Dileep G. Bal, M.D., M.S., MPH, national president of the American Cancer Society.
An estimated 47 million adults in the United States currently smoke, and approximately half will die prematurely from smoking. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for men and women, and this year alone, there will be about 169,500 new cases diagnosed in the U.S. More than 80 percent of lung cancers are thought to result from smoking.
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 California Division of the American Cancer Society succeeded in getting nearly 1 million smokers to quit for the day.
The first national Great American Smokeout was held in 1977. For more information about the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout, call 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit their web site at www.cancer.org
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