Published November 17, 2025
The Great American Smokeout is an annual event held on the third Thursday of November by the American Cancer Society (ACS) to promote smoking cessation. For over 40 years, the ACS has sponsored this event to encourage and support smokers in taking the first step to quit smoking. This year the event will take place on November 20th!
Smoking can cause a number of health issues, such as lung cancer (and other types of cancer), heart disease and stroke, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), gum disease, vision loss, type 2 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.
In addition, people with a history of smoking can have problems during pregnancy, even if they don’t smoke while they are pregnant. In fact, they can have problems becoming pregnant. Then once they become pregnant, they have a greater risk of having a miscarriage, a stillbirth, an ectopic pregnancy (the fertilized egg attaches outside of the uterus), or having a premature birth.
Smoking can affect the people around you as well. Secondhand smoke from your cigarette and the smoke you breathe out is dangerous and can cause health issues for the people around you. The adults in your life that breathe in secondhand smoke can also experience heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. But even more worrisome are the effects secondhand smoke has on babies and children. For example, they may experience frequent ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, severe asthma attacks, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Here's what you can do: Quitting smoking is one of the most important things you can do to improve your health and the health of others. The ACS outlines three important steps to help smokers quit:
Your doctor or pharmacist can recommend over-the-counter products that can help you quit smoking. If you decide to use smoking cessation products such as a nicotine patch or nicotine gum or lozenges, be sure to keep them secure so that young children do not get into them thinking they are stickers or regular gum or candy. Please refer to articles we have written about errors with medicine patches and nicotine lozenges. Quitting isn’t easy, but no matter how long you have been smoking, there are many benefits. This graphic will give you a quick glimpse into the short and long-term effects quitting smoking will have on your body. The ACS offers many resources to help people quit smoking. Check it out today!
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