BELLOWS FALLS — Thursday, Nov. 16, is the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout, and Greater Falls Connections and Springfield Medical Care Systems are teaming up to provide support to help tobacco users kick the habit.
Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the U.S., yet about 40 million Americans still smoke cigarettes. In Vermont, about 95,000 people smoke cigarettes and 800 Vermonters die each year from tobacco-related diseases.
Group quit classes and individual tobacco cessation counseling are available at Rockingham Medical Group and at the Springfield Health Center. In the Bellows Falls area, contact Scott Belt at 802-463-9000, ext 2724, or sbelt@springfieldmed.org to sign up. Help can also be accessed at 800-QUIT-NOW.
The quit classes are free, and you can also receive free or reduced nicotine patches, gum, and lozenges from Vermont's 802Quits program. Employers and community organizations can have free classes brought to their location if they have 10 or more people who would like to create a cessation group.
The American Cancer Society marks the Great American Smokeout on the third Thursday of November each year by encouraging smokers to use the date to make a plan to quit or to plan in advance and quit smoking that day.