As a leader in your organization, you can be part of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout by helping to inspire and inform your smoking employees. Every year, on the third Thursday of November, smokers across the nation take part in the American Cancer Society Great American Smokeout event.
Encourage someone at your workplace to use the date to make a plan to quit, or plan in advance and then quit smoking that day. By quitting – even for 1 day – smokers will be taking an important step toward a healthier life and reducing their cancer risk.
Quitting isn’t easy. So make sure that your people know that you support them every step of the way. You can help people improve their lives, maybe even save them, by encouraging smokers to quit smoking.
Tobacco use remains the single most preventable cause of disease and premature deaths in the United States, yet more than 40 million people still smoke cigarettes.
These are just a few of the benefits American Cancer Society lists related to quitting smoking for good:
- Quitting smoking lowers your risk of diabetes, lets blood vessels work better, and helps your heart and lungs.
- Life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than that of non-smokers.
- Quitting smoking before age 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking-related disease by about 90%.
- Quitting while you’re younger will reduce your health risks more, but quitting at any age can give back years of life that would be lost by continuing to smoke.
American Cancer Society has a library of resources on their website for this campaign. For employers, this is a great place to find tools for informing your people about the November 17 Smokeout and beyond that, give them helpful information on quitting for good.
In order to make it even more efficient for you, I have listed a few their resources with links. I think that these tools will be an asset to you as you look for methods to inform your employees.
- A valuable resource provided for smokers is the Cancer Society’s “Guide to Quitting Smoking.” Here are listed steps to take along the way for a smoker looking to quit. Click here for that resource.
- Deciding to Quit and Making a Plan for Quitting are essential first steps in quitting smoking. Here is a helpful guide for making the plan.
- They also provide a number of desktop helpers for those who are quitting smoking. Handy aids right where you need them. Click here for these state of the art aids.
- There is also a “Quit for Life” Mobile App available for both iOS and Android platforms. This is available in your phone app store. Search for “Quit for Life.”
- The American Cancer Society also provides a comprehensive toolkit specifically designed for businesses and employers. This provides everything that you need to get the word out to your employees.
- In this great resource they have included sample communications to use for the campaign. Tweetable tips, (good one liners that can be re-purposed), email message templates, posters, fliers, and easy event ideas. It is user friendly: print and post or copy and paste! To access The Communication for Business Toolkit click here.
We have provided these resource links to make it a little easier for you to promote “No Smoking.” This is in keeping with our goal to help managers manage their people and people to manage their work and their lives. Learn more about us here.
