Thursday Thirteen, Great American Smoke-Out
By APOOO • Nov 20th, 2008 • Category: Thursday Thirteen •
Email This Post
• 
Print This Post
Today is the 33rd annual Great American Smoke-Out (GASO) Day. Annually, on the third Thursday of November, the American Cancer Society for the last 33 years has asked smokers to give up smoking just for today. The belief is if smokers can quit for a day, make that first quit attempt, then maybe they can continue for another day and so forth and so forth until they’ve quit for good.
If you are a smoker, or have a friend or family member who is, today’s meme is Thirteen reasons for QUITTING SMOKING.
- Your Health
- High Cost of Cigarettes
- Increase Your Life Span
- Live to Watch Your Son/Daughter Graduate From High School
- Walk Your Daughter Down the Aisle
- You Want to Get Pregnant
- Lowers the risk of lung cancer, other cancers, heart attack, stroke, and chronic lung disease.
- Ex-smokers live longer than people who keep smoking. Ex-smokers enjoy a higher quality of life with fewer illnesses from cold and flu viruses, better self-reported health, and reduced rates of bronchitis and pneumonia.
- Smoking is less socially acceptable now than it was in the past. (If you smoke, do you like going outside in the cold to smoke?) Smokers may also find their prospects for dating or romantic involvement, including marriage, are largely limited to other smokers, who make up less than 20% of the adult population.
- If a mother smokes, there is a higher risk of her baby developing asthma in childhood, especially if she smoked while she was pregnant.
- Smoking is also linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and low-birth weight infants.
- Babies and children raised in a household where there is smoking have more ear infections, colds, bronchitis, and other lung and breathing problems than children from non-smoking families.
- SECONDHAND SMOKE KILLS! Studies have shown that secondhand smoke causes thousands of deaths each year from lung cancer and heart disease in healthy non-smokers.
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Related Posts
APOOO is a book club and an online author and reader community dedicated to advancing African American literature. Our mission is to expose readers of all ages to a good book in any genre; to support African American authors, books, literary events and bookclubs; to provide marketing resources, tools and tips to authors; and, to promote literacy within the African American community.
Email this author | All posts by APOOO
Giving up was one of the best things I ever did — for all the reasons you state.
Nicholas´s last blog post..Thursday Thirteen #72
Congrats Nicholas…what a feat and an accomplishment!
It stinks….I have tried for years to get my husband to stop. This has become one of my biggest goals over the last few months. He knows how I feel because my grandfather passed from lung cancer. His efforts to quit have not lasted more than a few days. His parents both stopped with no assistance and have not smoked in over 5 years.
Lashonda…nicotine is a hard addiction to break…and quitting takes practice…everytime he tries…he’s closer to quitting for good. So maybe you can get him to just try for today…quit for a day.
My mother-in-law quit smoking 12 years ago this week–I don’t think it was the Great American Smoke-Out, since she’s not American, but we’re all very proud of her.
Darla´s last blog post..TT #118
Hello Darla and congrats to your mother-in-law!