Please join Dr. Devadason, Health Officer of Queen Anne’s County Department of Health along with the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Service’s Cigarette Restitution Fund Program, Citizens Against Smoking Tobacco(C.A.S.T.) Coalition, and CSAFE in celebrating The 36th Annual Great American Smokeout.

The American Cancer Society has scheduled the 36th Annual Great American Smokeout for November 17, 2011, to encourage smokers to quit for a day in the hope they may quit for good.

Patches, tips for quitting, and telephone counseling— can help patients quit and increase their chances of staying quit, according to The Public Health Service (PHS) guideline, “Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: A Clinical Practice Guideline.”

The Great American Smokeout traditionally takes place on the third Thursday in November.  Even though the Smokeout officially began in 1977, the event’s roots reach back to 1971, when Arthur P. Mullaney challenged the citizens of Randolf, Massachusetts, to give up cigarettes for the day and donate the saved money to a high school scholarship fund. Mullaney coined the term Smokeout.

Later, Lynn R. Smith, editor of the Monticello Times in Minnesota, spearheaded that state’s first D-Day, or Don’t Smoke Day. D-Day spread like wildfire throughout Minnesota, and then blazed west to California where it became the Great American Smokeout.  The idea caught on in state after state until in 1977, it went nationwide under the sponsorship of the American Cancer Society.  If past Smokeouts are any indication, as many as one-third of the nation’s 46 million smokers could be taking the day off from smoking.

For more information, please call Dorine Fassett at (410)758-1306 ext. 320. The  toll-free telephone number for the American Cancer Society is 1-800-ACS-2345.