The Great American Smokeout is an annual day set aside to encourage smokers to go 24 hours without smoking a cigarette. It is held annually on the third Thursday in November. The most recent event was held on Thursday, November 19, 2009, and the next will be Thursday, November 18, 2010. The American Cancer Society, or ACS, sponsors the annual event and provides assistance and resources to help smokers use the Smokeout as an opportunity to quit smoking for good. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/subsite/greatamericans/content/Media.asp

On its website, the American Cancer Society offers promotional supplies for the Smokeout, including posters, stickers, t-shirt transfers and tent cards to help promote the day. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/subsite/greatamericans/Smokeout.asp Local resources are also published on the website to help smokers who want to quit find assistance in their neighborhood. Local ACS offices are located in most of the United States and can give direction on how to promote a non-smoking environment at work as well as how to support friends and family members who are trying to quit smoking. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/subsite/greatamericans/content/Local_Smokeout_Resources.asp

The idea for the Great American Smokeout was born in 1971 when Massachusetts resident Arthur P. Mullaney encouraged people to not buy cigarettes on one day and donate the unspent money to a local high school. It gained ground in 1974 when a Minnesota newspaper editor led the effort to have a statewide Don’t Smoke Day. The movement spread to California in 1976 when the state chapter of the American Cancer Society held the event with almost 1 million smokers participating. The Great American Smokeout began to be held nationally in 1977. http://www.acsf2f.com/gaso/aboutgaso.html

Despite the widespread success of the national no-smoking day, however, the ACS says that more effort is needed to spread the message. On its website, the nonprofit group says that in 2005, 23 percent of high school students were smokers. Quoting studies that show that high school students who smoke tend to continue smoking through adulthood, the ACS goes on to say that the Smokeout serves as “a powerful media platform to help further (their) work”. http://www.acsf2f.com/gaso/aboutgaso.html