Atlanta-based digital healthcare company Sharecare, which recently purchased a chunk of Healthways, and the American Cancer Society will host the fourth annual Great American Smokeout Twitter Chat using the hashtag #quittolive on Thursday, November 17, from 11 am to 2 pm Central.
"Quitting smoking is hard. To make the decision to quit and to successfully follow through with that requires information, motivation, support, and resources ... so the American Cancer Society is proud to team up with Sharecare to provide all of this and more through the Great American Smokeout Twitter Chat," said Cliff Douglas, vice president, Tobacco Control and director, Center for Tobacco Control. "Healthcare professionals will be available to answer questions, advocacy experts will be on hand to talk policy, and we welcome former smokers to join us by providing personal testimonials and inspiration. Who knows, maybe a smoker in New York will finally find the motivation they need to quit from a former smoker in California?"
Each hour of the #quittolive Twitter chat, medical experts and health professionals from across the country will address the negative health effects of tobacco usage and the importance of smoking cessation, and provide tips on how to quit.
11 am-noon: Quitting Smoking - The importance of quitting, strategies to quit and how quitting will impact your health in the short and long-term.
12-1 pm: The Younger Generation and Tobacco Use - Trends in tobacco usage among adolescents and young adults, vaping and e-cigarettes and how to help younger smokers.
1-2 pm: What You Can Do - Policy changes to discourage tobacco use, as well as ways to encourage friends and family to quit.
In other quit smoking news, the American Medical Association has adopted new anti-tobacco policies to strengthen and reaffirm the organization's stance against tobacco usage. During the interim meeting in Orlando, the AMA adopted policies supporting its longtime commitment to preventing tobacco use amongst youth. The policies ask the FDA to require tobacco companies to add color, graphic warning labels to all cigarette packages, and call for raising the minimum legal purchase age of all tobacco products to 21.
According to a recent study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, raising the minimum legal purchase age of tobacco products to 21 could result in a 12-percent decrease in smoking prevalence amongst the nation's youth.
"As part of the AMA's effort to improve the health of the nation, the policies adopted today further our longtime commitment to keeping all harmful tobacco products out of the hands of young people. California and Hawaii have already raised the minimum legal purchase age of tobacco products to 21, and we encourage all states to follow suit," said AMA Board Member William E. Kobler, M.D. "We also call on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to act now to submit a new proposed rule that would require all cigarette packages to include graphic warning labels depicting the negative health consequences of smoking."
