It’s never too late to stop smoking. And it isn’t too early—if
you or a loved one or good friend is a smoker—to start thinking
about next week’s Great American Smokeout. The Great American
Smokeout—or GASO, for short—is a signature American Cancer
Society event that occurs every year on the Thursday before
Thanksgiving. This year’s GASO celebrates the 32nd anniversary
of this successful program which began in 1976. Since GASO
started, millions of men and women in this country have stopped
smoking, and millions more haven’t started. In fact, today there
are more former smokers in the United States than current
smokers. But we still have about 20% of adults in this country
still smoking cigarettes. Unfortunately, that number is not
falling as much as it did when GASO was first introduced over 30
years ago. Did you know that the American Cancer Society
estimates that since the early 1990’s hundreds of thousands of
lives—especially among men--have been saved as a result of
tobacco cessation and decreased uptake o