Today is the "Great American Smokeout", an event created by the American Cancer Society to encourage people to stop smoking.

Rob Evans - Dr. Jim Blaine and Brian Llewellyn of the American Cancer Society are here to talk about this.
Brian, what is the purpose of today?  Do you want people to quit smoking starting today?  Or just given them a sample of what they are up against to see if they can get it done?

Brian - One of the first steps to quit smoking it to pick a day.  So the American Cancer Society has the Great American Smokeout to give people a day that they can decide they want to quit smoking.

Rob - Doctor, how can people do it?  It's got to be hard.  People do it for a reason - they're addicted.
Dr. Blaine - It's difficult. I think the thing that is one of the turning points for people is when they start realizing that smoking is their enemy - that it is eventually going to cause their premature death. That commitment has got to come first.  I get it all the time, the question, 'what works?'
The answer is - nothing really works at least without some willpower.  You've got to come to the realization that this is something that is very bad for me, is going to kill me prematurely, its possibly is going to injure my family.  When that happens, the rest is much easier.

Rob - Second hand smoke, kids especially, much higher risk with problems with the family, right?
Blaine - Absolutely.  Ear infections, bronchitis, etc, four times more likely to smoke are children of smokers or grandchildren of smokers. So there's a really good reason right there.

Rob - Those are physical things that can happen if you smoke, but Brian, you were talking earlier about the emotional things when one of your relatives smoked.
Brian - One of my aunts, was one of six kids that my grandparents had.  She was my grandmother's one and only daughter - one of the favorite people in the family.  One of the last memories of my aunt, she passed away of lung cancer, she had smoked her entire life.  She had part of her throat cut out, her tongue cut out, her teeth were pulled and her hair was gone from the chemotherapy she had received.  And that was the last memory I had of my aunt, that kind of overshadows the good memories I had of her from the past.

Rob - For people at home right now, you might not think you're hurting anybody else, but there are two ways right there.  Maybe you don't have anybody else, you don't have any family left, Brian, show them some of the things smokers are actually going through.
Brian - We talk about shock value when it comes to smoking.  The amount of phlegm someone with emphysema coughs up in one day is more than a pint.  We show people what happens to your mouth, your gums, your teeth, your tongue when you smoke.  Cancer can develop in all of those areas.  And the amount of tar that someone puts in their body if they smoke one pack of cigarettes per day for a year.  This is what coats their lungs, so definitely not healthy.  The average age of a person in Greene County who starts smoking, is 12 years old.  So we talk about early detection and prevention, through the American Cancer Society.

Rob - And there is a number people can call today for help - 1-800-QUIT NOW, or 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org