UTSA hosts Great American Smokeout Nov. 17-18

(Nov. 15, 2004)--UTSA Student Health Services and the student peer-education organization FACES (Finding Awareness by Creating Educated Students) will host free Great American Smokeout activities Nov. 17-18 for the UTSA community. The Great American Smokeout, created 28 years ago by the American Cancer Society, is a day for smokers to give up smoking for one day.

FACES members will conduct free, one-hour smoking cessation classes Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m. in Recreation and Wellness Center Room 1.502 and 8 p.m. at Chaparral Village at the 1604 Campus to provide strategies for quitting smoking including educational literature and other free items.

Student Health Services staff members and FACES members will distribute information on smoking cessation from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 18 at the UTSA 1604 and Downtown campuses. Literature and giveaways will be distributed outside the Humanities and Social Sciences Building facing Sombrilla Plaza and outside the University Center near the Subway sandwich shop at the 1604 Campus. Information and giveaways will be available at the Frio Street Building commons at the Downtown Campus.

According to the American Cancer Society, people who quit smoking, regardless of age, live longer than people who continue to smoke. An estimated 44.7 million adults are former smokers in the United States. Among current smokers, 70 percent report they want to quit. Quitting smoking substantially decreases the risk of lung, laryngeal, esophageal, oral, pancreatic, bladder and cervical cancers. Quitting lowers the risk for major diseases including coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease.

Call the American Cancer Quitline at 1-877-YES-QUIT.

For more information, contact Kathy Ceresoli, health education coordinator, at (210) 458-4142.

--Tim Brownlee