GREAT AMERICAN SMOKEOUT 2023

Every year on the third Thursday of November, the Great American Smokeout challenges smokers to take the first step towards quitting cigarettes forever by giving up cigarettes for 24 hours. This year’s Great American Smokeout is November 16th.

The American Cancer Society started the Great American Smokeout during the 1970s. Each year, this event draws attention to the deaths and chronic diseases caused by smoking. Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States.  In 2021, an estimated 11.5% (28.3 million) of U.S. adults currently smoke cigarettes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

In celebration of the Great American Smokeout, the Wicomico County Health Department will offer stop    smoking kits at the following locations:

• Apple Discount Drugs, 404A N. Fruitland Blvd., Fruitland MD;

• Apple Discount Drugs, 1210 Nanticoke Rd. Unit 11, Salisbury, MD;

• Lower Shore Friends, 207 Maryland Ave. #5, Salisbury, MD;

• Chesapeake Health Care, 1665 Woodbrooke Dr., Salisbury, MD.

To help people stop smoking, the Wicomico County Health Department offers a virtual group class every Thursday at noon. The program features free education, support and stop smoking medications including nicotine replacement patches or nicotine lozenges. Anyone who lives or works in Wicomico County may participate. The Wicomico Tobacco Program also offers worksite and community stop smoking classes and confidential individual counseling over the phone, including for pregnant women.  Take advantage of trying to quit with thousands of others across the nation: pick up a stop smoking kit and quit for the day…it could be the first of many!