Great American Smokeout

The Great American Smokeout occurs every third Thursday of November. This American Cancer Society event promotes beating nicotine and smoking addictions.

The Great American Smokeout history

The celebration started in the 1970s as an attempt to get smokers to stop for just one day. They hoped that passing the 24-hour milestone would encourage smokers to keep at it, continuing their no-smoking streak and quitting altogether.

Arthur P. Mullaney of Massachusetts created the Great American Smokeout to encourage people to donate the money they would normally spend on cigarettes for one day to instead go to a high school scholarship fund. Then, the editor of Minnesota’s Monticello Times picked up the idea in 1974 and created D-Day or Don’t Smoke Day. In 1976, almost 1 million smokers gave up their cigarettes for a day in California and the program went nationwide in 1977.

The perils of smoking

The notion that smoking is bad for you has been a part of American rhetoric for nearly 50 years. But many people don’t realize just how this unhealthy habit impacts the body and mind. Smoking has been proven to contribute to a multitude of diseases, including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Strokes.