Great American Smokeout over, but reasons to quit smoking remain

Smokers nationwide participated Thursday in an event that has brought about changes in the minds of Americans concerning smoking.

On the third Thursday every November, smokers are challenged to stop using tobacco. The Great American Smokeout, which was originally inspired in 1974 by Lynn R. Smith, became popular on Nov. 18, 1976. On this date, the California Division of the American Cancer Society succeeded in motivating about a million smokers to give up the habit for one day. The yearly event became nationwide in 1977, the American Cancer Society Web site said.

As part of the event each year, attention is placed upon the deaths and chronic diseases caused by smoking. Many local and state governments were inspired to ban smoking in various public places, including many places of work, in the 1980s and 1990s. Also, as a result of this event, taxes were raised on cigarettes, and cigarette advertising was limited in an effort to lessen teen smoking.

According to an ACS report in 2003, states that have strong tobacco control laws have seen lower smoking rates and fewer people dying of lung cancer, the Web site said.

There are an estimated 45 million adults in the United States who smoke today. According to the ACS, smoking can lead to lung cancer, in addition to other types of cancer and heart disease.

"Smoking is responsible for one in three cancer deaths and one in five deaths from all causes. Another 8.6 million people are living with serious illnesses caused by smoking," the Web site said.

According to the information provided, attitudes about smoking have changed drastically throughout the last 30 years. People are more knowledgeable today than they once were about nicotine addiction and about strategies that can help those who want to quit smoking.

The ACS also offers reasons that smokers should quit. Some of the reasons affect the smokers' personal health. For example, only 12 hours after a smoker becomes a non-smoker, the carbon-monoxide level in that person's blood returns to the normal level. However, other factors could affect those close enough to smokers to receive secondhand smoke.

The ACS defines secondhand smoke as a mixture of two forms of smoke from burning tobacco products. The first is called sidestream smoke, which is a smoke that comes from the end of a lighted cigarette, pipe or cigar. The second is called mainstream smoke, which is smoke that is exhaled by the smoker. Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke absorb nicotine in addition to other toxic chemicals. According to the ACS, the more secondhand smoke a person is exposed to, the greater amount of harmful chemicals in that person's body.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer have classified secondhand smoke as a cancer causing agent referred to as a "known human carcinogen."

More than 60 of the 4,000 chemical compounds found in tobacco smoke are suspected to cause cancer, and 150,000 to 300,000 lung infections in children younger than 18 months of age, which result in 7,500-15,000 hospital stays has been attributed to secondhand smoke.

According to the 2006 Surgeon General's report, secondhand smoke causes premature death and diseases in children and adults. Secondhand smoke can increase the probability of a child developing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in addition to children developing various respiratory ailments or ear problems. Furthermore, the report said, "there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke."

The ACS advises that, though it is not an easy feat to accomplish, stopping smoking is the most important step that smokers can take to improve the quality of their lives and ultimately lengthen the number of years that they will be alive.

Since nicotine, the drug found in tobacco, can be as addictive as heroine or cocaine, smokers must deal with the physical and psychological dependency issues in order to overcome the addiction. Withdrawal symptoms for a person who is trying to quit smoking can last from a few hours up to several weeks.

Many helps exist for those who wish to quit the habit permanently. For more information about a stop-smoking program, smokers can contact their local physician or ACS' Quitline phone counseling program at (800) 227-2345.