The American Cancer Society has scheduled the Great American Smokeout (GASO) for November 19, 2015, to encourage smokers to quit for a day in the hope they may quit for good. Several materials have been developed to support your work in helping smokers quit. Many of these materials can be accessed on CDC’s GASO website or by clicking the image below.
Even though GASO officially began in 1977, the event’s roots reach back to 1971, when Arthur P. Mullaney challenged the citizens of Randolf, Massachusetts, to give up cigarettes for the day and donate the saved money to a high school scholarship fund. Mullaney coined the term Smokeout.
Later, Lynn R. Smith, editor of the Monticello Times in Minnesota, spearheaded that state’s first D-Day, or Don’t Smoke Day. D-Day spread like wildfire throughout Minnesota and then blazed west to California, where it became the Great American Smokeout.
