About one year ago in late November, the Seton Family of Hospitals successfully adopted a smoke-free policy, prohibiting smoking inside or outside it's Central Texas facilities. Anyone who has ever tried to quit smoking knows it's not easy either begin or sustain a smoke-free lifestyle. Smoking-related conditions such as cancer, heart disease and breathing disorders lead to hospitalization for thousands of patients each year. Most are advised to give up smoking. We believe we have an obligation to provide the healthiest environment possible for patients, families, visitors, physicians and our own associates.

Smoking cessation aids are available for purchase at Seton gift shops. For those who want help to quit smoking, resource information is located at our information desks and gift shops. While you are here, a physician or a Seton associate can provide information about smoking cessation support and community resources available to assist you during your visit at a Seton facility.

We selected the date of the Great American Smokeout, an annual effort to encourage Americans to quit smoking and other forms of tobacco use, to begin our new policy last year. The Smokeout celebrated it's 32 national observance this year on November 20. The following is information that was made available to Seton Associates about quitting and where to look for help.

If youre ready to quit, here are helpful resources in the community:

• Freedom From Smoking Online - Free Online Cessation Program offered by the American Lung Association..
• 1-800-QUIT-NOW is a 24/7, 365 days-a-year phone-line designed to provide support and coaching to those who are embarking on the journey to quit smoking. Trained cessation experts staff the Quitline.
• 1-877-44U-QUIT is the National Cancer Institutes Smoking Quitline. Counselors are available to answer smoking-related questions in English or Spanish, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. .
• The Texas Medical Association offers material geared toward physicians who are assisting and treating patients who smoke. Be sure to type smoking cessation in the search box.
• UT Smoking Cessation Program - A four-week class free for UT students.

Helpful tips from the American Cancer Society

• If you miss the feeling of having a cigarette in your hand, play with something else - a pencil, a paperclip, a marble.
• If you miss the feeling of having something in your mouth, try toothpicks, cinnamon sticks or celery.
• AVOID TEMPTATION by staying away from situations you associate with pleasurable smoking.
• FIND NEW HABITS and create a non-smoking environment around you.
• Do brief bursts of exercise (isometrics, pushups, deep knee bends, walk up a flight of stairs or touch your toes).

History

The idea for the Great American Smokeout grew out of a 1974 event. Lynn R. Smith, editor of the Moticello Times in Minnesota, spearheaded the states first D-Day, or Dont Smoke Day. The idea may have been inspired by Arthur P. Mullaney of Randolph, Massachusetts, who three years earlier had asked people to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money they would have spent on cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund.

The idea caught on, and on November 18, 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society successfully prompted nearly one million smokers to quit for the day. That California event marked the first Smokeout, and the Society took it nationwide in 1977.

The Smokeout has helped bring about dramatic changes in Americans attitudes about smoking, which have led to community programs and smoke-free laws that are now saving lives in many states. The event began in the 1970s when smoking and secondhand smoke were commonplace.