The University Peer Education Program (PEP) is urging students to quit smoking today in honor of the Great American Smokeout.
The Great American Smokeout is a nationally recognized event that challenges people to stop using tobacco and raises awareness around effective ways to quit for good.
PEP is trying to raise awareness by displaying information on a table in the union on how to effectively quit smoking from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today.
Melissa Dyson, coordinator of PEP, said she would like for students to seriously consider trying to make today the first day of their non-smoking life.
PEP will also be hosting an Adopt-a-Friend program for friends of smokers. Participants will sign a contract vowing to encourage their smoking friend not to smoke during that day.
“I plan to help one of my friends quit for that day. Hopefully, it will have a long term effect,” John Paul Cox, government senior from Houma, said.
The Great American Cancer Society (ACS) began the Great American Smokeout in 1976. The idea for the smokeout was derived from a 1971 event when Massachusetts’ Arthur P. Mullaney asked people to give up smoking for a day and donate the money they would have spent on cigarettes to a local high school.
With the same idea in mind, according to the ACS, the average smoker can save $3,391 a year if he would quit his habit. The ACS website challenges smokers with this question: “Do you really want to continue burning up your money with nothing to show for it except possible health problems?”
Besides the financial benefits, the ACS reports that other reasons to quit smoking are health, social acceptance, the health of others and setting examples for others.
The ACS provides immediate rewards of quitting. Quitting helps stop the damaging effects of tobacco on your appearance including: Premature wrinkling of the skin, bad breath, stained teeth, gum disease, bad smelling clothes and hair and yellow fingernails.
Other benefits include: Food tasting better, sense of smell returning to normal, ordinary activities no longer leaving one out of breath (climbing stairs, light housework, etcetera) and seeing a drop in health and life insurance premiums.
According to The Peer Educator, a publication provided by The Bacchus and Gamma Peer Education Network, “many college students who smoke would like to quit.”
“I will try to quit for a day, but I will have to take it one hour at a time. I will go check out the materials in the Student Union,” Cristina Carroll, mass communication senior from New Orleans, said.
PEP offers this advice for students to quit smoking for good: Make the decision that you want to quit, pick a day to save your life-your quit date, tell people you are quitting, talk to a doctor or someone in the PEP, get information and know that the first week is the hardest.
PEP encourages students who have quit smoking and are tempted to start again to wait because the craving will pass, remember your reasons for wanting to quit, seek support, replace the craving with something healthy, reduce your stress and check out your medication options.
The PEP tells students to “Be strong. Seek support. Make a commitment. You can do it!