How to Quit
— -- Seventy percent of smokers say they want to quit. If you're one of them, visit the following sites for more information and details on how you can get help:
www.smokefree.gov
About Smokefree.gov
Smokefree.gov is intended to help you or someone you care about quit smoking.
Different people need different resources as they try to quit. The information and professional assistance available on this Web site can help to support both your immediate and long-term needs as you become, and remain, a nonsmoker.
www.naquitline.org
About the North American Quitline Consortium:
Quitlines are a service that offers telephone support for people who want to quit using tobacco. The service involves providing information and counseling. Some quitlines offer additional services such as medications, online cessation information and programs, and referral to community-based cessation programs. Research has shown that quitlines are an effective way to deliver tobacco cessation services.
The number of states and provinces in North America offering quitline services for smokers and other tobacco users has increased exponentially in the last decade. Today, residents in all 10 provinces in Canada and all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the U.S. have access to quitline services. The dramatic growth in the number of these services has led to an increased awareness of the important role quitlines can play in assisting smokers and a desire to better understand the operations, promotion and effectiveness of quitlines.
The North American Quitline Consortium seeks to unite health departments, quitline service providers, researchers and national organizations in the United States and Canada to enable these quitline professionals to learn from each other and to improve quitline services.
www.cdc.gov/tobacco
About the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health:
The Office on Smoking and Health is a division within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, which is one of the centers within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing more than 440,000 deaths each year and resulting in an annual cost of more than $75 billion in direct medical costs.
Nationally, smoking results in more than 5.6 million years of potential life lost each year.
Approximately 80 percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18. Every day, nearly 4,000 young people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette.
More than 6.4 million children living today will die prematurely because of a decision they will make as adolescents -- the decision to smoke cigarettes.
