HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced plans for a national network of smoking cessation quitlines to provide all smokers in the United States access to the support and latest information to help them quit.

"The combination of lives lost and the cost of treating smoking-related diseases makes our investment in smoking cessation services imperative," said Secretary Thompson. "By providing smoking cessation resources to the 46 million adults in this country who smoke, we can make an enormous improvement in public health."

To provide the highest level of assistance to smokers across the country that want to quit, this year HHS will establish a new toll-free telephone number that will serve as a single access point to the national network of quitlines. By providing one-easy-to-remember number, smokers in every state will have access to the tools they need to quit smoking.

The program has three main components:

States with existing quitlines will receive increased funding to enhance existing state quitline services. States could use these supplements to expand their hours of operation, hire bilingual counselors, build referral linkages with local health care systems, or promote quitlines to more individuals.

States that do not have quitlines will receive grants to establish them to provide their residents the tools that they need to quit smoking.

HHS' National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Information Service telephone counselors will provide assistance to individuals in states without quitlines.

To view the complete release, please go to http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040203.html

For more information on cancer, please go to NCI's Web site at http://cancer.gov.

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