Great American Smokeout *it turns 30 yrs old today 11/16*

FYI in our efforts to be healthy! http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/PED_10_4_Great_American_Smokeout.asp Now's the Time to Quit Smoking If you're a smoker looking to kick the habit, there's no time like November 16, the date of this year's Great American Smokeout. You already know why you should quit. We can help you figure out how to do it and point you to resources that can help. Go smoke-free -- it's one of the best decisions you'll ever make for yourself and your loved ones. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/SPC/content/SPC_1_Smokeout_30th_Anniversary.asp The Great American Smokeout Turns 30 Thirty years ago, smoke-filled boardrooms, restaurants, and airplanes were nothing out of the ordinary. The air's a lot clearer today -- and the Great American Smokeout is one of the reasons. On November 16, this seminal American Cancer Society event marks 3 decades of helping smokers kick the habit. Each year on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, ACS encourages smokers to give up cigarettes -- for the day, and ideally for good. The battle against tobacco has gained a lot of momentum since those early days -- and public health advocates have learned a lot about the best ways to help smokers quit. Medications, self-help materials, and counseling can all improve the odds of a smoker getting off cigarettes and staying off. In the 1970s, most people who quit did it by going cold turkey because there weren't many other options, explained Tom Glynn, PhD, ACS senior director of international tobacco control. "Since then we have the 5 nicotine replacement therapies and 2 prescription drugs," he said. "We also have 30 years of knowledge about how people can learn how to stop -- the fact that people take several times to stop. We also didn't have [telephone help lines], which we do now. And there are more role models now of people who have quit. Just last year we crossed that threshold of having more former smokers than current smokers in the US." Limiting the places smokers can light up also has had an effect. Today, more than 2,200 US communities and 17 states are smoke-free, and smoking is prohibited on all domestic airline flights and in many workplaces, restaurants, and other public spaces. "That certainly has propelled people to quit or cut back," Glynn said. As a result, fewer adults in the US are smoking and those who do are smoking less. In 1950, around half of Americans smoked. Today, even though 21% of adults still light up, per capita cigarette consumption is at its lowest point since World War II. There's a big cancer payoff from that drop in smoking: Lung cancer rates are going down among men, and leveling off among women. Still, lung cancer is the top cancer killer of both men and women in the US, claiming more than 160,000 lives each year. And more than 44 million US adults still smoke, putting themselves at risk of not only lung cancer, but also other types of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, emphysema, and other ailments. Nevertheless, the progress against tobacco is astounding, Glynn said, akin to eradicating polio or smallpox. "This is one of the great public health stories of the century in the US, to go from where we were at the turn of the 20th century to now," he said. "Millions of lives have been saved and many more illnesses averted by what happened." Article date: Nov. 1, 2006 Take Care, Jamie Lap RNY 10/9/02 Dr. Singh 320/163 5'9'' (lost 45# before surgery) Plastics 6/9/04 & 11/11/2005 Dr. King http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/members/profile.php?N=c1132518510 "Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect, it just means you've decided to see beyond the imperfections!"

Wish I could get my husband to quit. So many attempts with no real success. Cigarettes are evil xox Aim