Salem, Mass.  – North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) is playing a positive roll in the 2007 Great American Smokeout through a free community information session at NSMC Salem Hospital.

The event features lectures from NSMC’s top smoking cessation professionals, centered around NSMC’s very successful Quit and Quit for Good program. It will take place Thursday, November 15, 2007 from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. in Salem Hospital’s Davenport 103 conference room. Call 978-741-3296 to reserve your seat and stop smoking today!

About the Smokeout

Are you thinking about quitting smoking but not sure you're ready to take the plunge? Maybe the Great American Smokeout is for you. It's an opportunity to join with literally millions of other smokers in saying "no thanks" to cigarettes for 24 hours.

The Great American Smokeout traditionally takes place on the third Thursday in November. The concept dates from the early '70s when Lynn Smith, publisher of the Monticello Times of Minnesota, announced the first observance and called it "D Day." The idea caught on in state after state until in 1977, it went nationwide under the sponsorship of the American Cancer Society. In the past, as many as one-third of the nation's 46 million smokers have taken the day off from smoking.

The rules are simple: You quit smoking for the 24 hours of the Smokeout. The wonderful thing is that you won't be alone; you can swap advice, jokes and groans with the other "quitters," nonsmokers and the American Cancer Society volunteers who will be cheering you on. Even if you don't go on to quit permanently, you will learn that you can quit for a day and that many others around you are taking the step, too.