Hispanic Heritage Month is the Time to Quit Smoking

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Hispanic Heritage Month is the Time to Quit Smoking

8/30/2010

Free Online Quit Support Available with EX®

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Smoking takes a deadly toll on the 16 percent of Hispanic adults who smoke in the United States – and their families. This September, as we Celebrate History, Heritage and the American Dream, EX®, the national quit smoking campaign, offers free support to those Hispanic Americans who want to break free from smoking addiction.

With the latest research estimating that nearly six million people worldwide will lose their lives to tobacco in 2010, EX takes an innovative approach to helping the 46 million Americans who smoke to finally quit. Quitting smoking is ultimately one of the single most important lifestyle changes one can make to improve and extend their lives.

“While Hispanic Americans smoke at a lower rate than most other racial and ethnic populations, finding supportive solutions to quitting is still important and much needed,” said Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, President and CEO of Legacy. “EX is a free resource created by and for smokers, and I am confident that it can help Americans, including Hispanics, re-learn life without tobacco. What better way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, than to implement steps that create a healthier population to live out the American Dream?” 

EX provides free evidence-based tools to help smokers quit, including information that can help them prepare for a quit attempt by re-learning their life without cigarettes. EX also provides social support through the website BecomeAnEX.org, which is a convening point for smokers who want to quit and collaborate on their successes and challenges in the difficult quit process. More than one million people have visited the site, and more than 22,000 smokers have joined the online community, these former smokers have formed nearly 300 customized support groups.

EX designed its tools in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic and with input from former and current smokers who have lived with this struggle – all in an effort to provide smokers with a realistic approach based on evidence-based research. The Become An EX iPhone App is now available to help smokers quit on the go from the App Store on iPhone or at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-ex-plan/id369931367?mt=8.

Most smokers in America – more than 70 percent – want to quit, but, in 2000, only about five percent of smokers were successful in quitting long-term. Tobacco-related death is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States; smokers, therefore, need to be armed with all the available information to make the best, most informed choices about the smoking cessation medications and resources available to them.

EX® is a collaborative public health campaign presented by the National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation, a partnership of the nation's leading public health organizations and states. The campaign helps smokers prepare to quit and guides them to useful resources that foster successful quit attempts including the EX plan, a free personalized quit plan available on the campaign’s website www.BecomeAnEX.org. EX is the culmination of several years of research and testing, combining an understanding of the power of nicotine addiction with messages that resonate with and motivate smokers toward behavior change. The EX approach is peer to peer and focuses on "re-learning life without cigarettes" by encouraging smokers to think differently about the process of quitting. The campaign, which began airing nationwide in March 2008, includes television, radio, online AND out-of-home advertising. The EX website helps smokers create their own individual plan to quit and connects them to a virtual community of other smokers where they can share stories and strategies about quitting. Founding members of the NATC include numerous states and the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the National Cancer Institute, the American Legacy Foundation, C-Change, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and clinical partner, the Mayo Clinic.

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Contact: Sarah Shank, 202-454-5561, sshank@legacyforhealth.org