Kicking the Habit Puts the Heart Into the Great American Smokeout

甜瓜视频 students walking through Lubbock campus courtyard.

It is estimated cigarettes annually lead to the death of more 480,000 people in the U.S., and the latest numbers from 2018 show cigarette smoking cost American economy approximately $372 billion in lost productivity and another $240 billion in health care costs.

The Great American Smokeout, which the American Cancer Society began in 1977, has no doubt motivated many smokers to kick the habit, as the old slogan once implored. And though the annual campaign continues to be observed 45 years later 鈥� Nov. 17 is the date for the 2022 Great American Smokeout 鈥� the percentage of smokers in the U.S. still hovered at 12.5% as recently as 2020. In fact, smoking cigarettes is still the country鈥檚 number one cause of preventable death and disease.