Great American Smokeout

Great American Smokeout

Third Thursday in November

It was the Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health that first gave impetus to grassroots efforts to discourage the smoking of cigarettes. As far back as 1971, the town of Randolph, Massachusetts, had asked its residents to give up tobacco for a day. In 1974 the editor of the Monticello Times in Minnesota led the first mass movement by smokers to give up cigarettes, calling it "D-Day" for "Don't Smoke." The idea spread quickly throughout Minnesota and skipped west to California in 1977, where it became known as the Great American Smokeout. The following year it was observed nationwide for the first time, under the sponsorship of the American Cancer Society.
The Smokeout focuses attention not only on cigarette smokers but, more recently, on smokeless tobacco users as well. Activities are generally light-hearted rallies, parades, obstacle courses, contests, skits, parties, etc.—all designed to keep smokers away from their cigarettes for an entire day, in the hope that they will continue the effort on their own.
The Cancer Society encourages nonsmokers to "adopt" smokers on this day and support them as they go through withdrawal from nicotine—a drug that is said to be as addictive as heroin. Schools are particularly active in observing the Smokeout, teaching young people that the easiest way to avoid the health problems associated with smoking is never to start. Businesses, hospitals, and other organizations also sponsor programs and activities designed to increase public awareness of the hazards to which both smokers and those who breathe their smoke are exposed—particularly lung cancer.
In recent years, millions of people have quit for the day, and many of them do not return to the habit.

CONTACTS:
American Cancer Society
1180 Ave. of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
800-227-2345 or 212-382-2169; fax: 212-719-0193
www.cancer.org

Celebration days: Nov 17, 2011; Nov 15, 2012; Nov 21, 2013; Nov 20, 2014; Nov 19, 2015