A challenge for those wanting to live a healthier lifestyle.

The American Cancer Society will hold the Great American Smokeout on Thursday.

For the first time in nearly 15 years, a hint that smoking rates may be headed in the wrong direction. According to the Centers For Disease Control, the rates jumped by nearly a percent in 2008.   

What started as a drag for Christian Greiner, quickly turned to comfort. "I originally started to smoke so I could go on break at work like everybody else," he said. "It kind of became a habit."

He's one of an estimated 46 million Americans who light up, putting themselves in danger.

The CDC is hoping to extinguish all cigarettes, because it says smoking causes at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths."

As part of the Smokeout, the cancer society is hoping more people will sit down and learn to kick the habit.

"You've got a psychological component and you also have a physical component," St. John's Registered Nurse Gail Ayers said.

She helps people deconstruct old fixations. "People go gosh when I get stressed, when I get upset, when something doesn't go right, that's when the craving for a cigarette will really be intense."

"The good times was when i didn't want a cigarette," former smoker Joyce Thoms said. "The bad times were when I woke up at three o'clock in the morning and thought I smelled a cigarette burning."

Ayers is helping people clear decades worth of air.

"42 years. Very strong," Thoms said. "The fact that I feel healthy is the best part of it."

The Cancer Society uses the Smokeout to encourage tobacco users to make a plan to quit, or plan in advance to quit by tomorrow.

Research shows those who stop smoking will live longer. The smoker who quits by 35 adds eight years to their life. Those who stop by 55 add five years. Even long term smokers who kick the habit by 65 will live three years longer.