American Smoking Day Cancer Great Smokeout Event People

The "Great American Smokeout" is an "annual" (once a year) event organized by the American Cancer Society, a nonprofit organization that provides education and support regarding cancer. During the "smokeout," people are "challenged" (asked to do something that is difficult) to "give up smoking" (stop smoking cigarettes) for 24 hours.

The first Great American Smokeout event was held in 1970, when a man in Randolph, Massachusetts asked people to stop smoking for one day and "donate" (give away) to the local high school the money that they normally would have spent on cigarettes. The idea became popular, and now the Smokeout is held on the third Thursday of November. In the days "leading up to" (immediately before) the Great American Smokeout, people are encouraged to use that day to make a plan to "quit smoking" (no longer smoke cigarettes) and/or to make that day the first day when they do not smoke.

The American Cancer Society "touts" (talks about in a favorable way) the benefits of quitting smoking. The organization states that the smoker's heart rate and blood pressure drop almost immediately, followed by improved "circulation" (the travel of blood throughout the body). They state that, over time, the risk of serious disease and death "diminishes" (becomes smaller) significantly, and that 15 years after "smoking cessation" (the end of smoking cigarettes), the "ex-smoker" (a person who used to smoke) has the same risk of heart disease as a "non-smoker" (a person who has never smoked).

The event clearly helps individuals, but it also helps "motivate" (make someone want to do something) organizations and governments to "enact laws" (create new laws) against smoking in public, in restaurants, and in private workplaces.