Smokers challenged to quit for one day
"DO YOU SMOKE AND WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SMOKEOUT?"
When Smokers Quit
The health benefits over time20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drop.
12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
2 weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.
1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease. Cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.
1 year after quitting: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s.
5 years after quitting: Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker.
10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker’s. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix and pancreas decrease.
15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker’s.
Ethan Hendricks
Staff Writer
The 35th annual Great American Smokeout Challenge takes place Thursday, Nov. 19, across the nation.
On this day, smokers are asked to stop smoking for the entire day in an effort to promote a cleaner environment and to encourage smokers to quit smoking tobacco.
Mark Smith, Environmental Club president, said the Smokeout will be acknowledged at OCCC.
Environmental Club members will help call attention to the environmental hazards of smoking by collecting cigarette butts on campus grounds from 4 to 5 p.m. Nov. 19, Smith said.
While the Environmental Club supports the Smokeout, he said, one day isn’t going to solve everything.
“I think it’s great that people are bringing this issue to light,” Smith said. “But there needs to be more action.”
Many students on campus echoed Smith’s sentiments.
Aracely Baeza, public relations major, said she thinks the idea is a good one.
“However, I think it would be better for smokers and the environment if there was more than one Smokeout during the year,” said Baeza, a non-smoker.
Psychology major Lance Hall said even though he smokes, he likes the idea of a Smokeout.
However, Hall said, it would take more effort.
The Great American Smokeout was originated in Monticello, Minn. by Lynn R. Smith, editor of the Monticello Times.
In 1974, Smith spearheaded the state’s first D-Day — or “Don’t Smoke Day.”
Smokers all over town either stopped smoking or cut back for a day.
The idea caught on, and in 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society hosted a Smokeout with one million participants.
The next year, the American Cancer Society took the event nationwide.
The Smokeout challenges smokers to stop smoking and makes them aware of the tools that are available to help them quit.
These tools include nicotine replacement products, stop-smoking groups, guidebooks and counseling.
According to the American Cancer Society, using one or more of these tools aids in the quitting process.
According to the Center for Disease Control, the Smokeout drew attention to the chronic diseases and deaths associated with smoking.
Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, many local and state governments responded to the Smokeout by banning smoking in workplaces and restaurants, raising taxes on cigarettes, limiting cigarette promotions, and discouraging teen smoking.
For more information on the Smokeout, visit www.cancer.org/smokeout.
