SAN DIEGO – The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival celebrated in Asia. The festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar with full moon at night. A symbol of reunion, it is also known as reunion festival.
Nowadays, there are many Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese living in the United States who still gather with relatives and friends to watch the moon, eat moon cakes and play lanterns during Mid-Autumn Festival.
Smoking not only harms every organ in your body but it also harms everybody in your family. Although smoking is still the leading cause of death, this is completely preventable, you can quit smoking, so that you and your family and friends can share health and happiness!
As smoking is dangerous, quitting naturally brings many health benefits.
Blood pressure and pulse normalize within 20 minutes after cessation, and nicotine will be out of the body in about three days. After one year, risk of heart disease is cut by half, and after five years, cervical cancer risk falls to that of a nonsmoker. After ten years, lung cancer risk is cut in half.
“You can quit smoking,” said Dr. Shu-Hong Zhu, Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, “The more you try to quit smoking, the closer (you are) to success, so that you and your family and friends can share health and happiness!”
Here are some tips on how to help you get started in quitting smoking:
• Identify your reason of quitting smoking
The more you see the reason to quit, you are more likely to start quitting. Do you quit because you want to breathe easier? Be around longer with your family? Whatever gets you fired up, write it down, a strong reason can get you started. And it will help you stay quit when you’re tempted to smoke.
• Call the Asian Smokers’ Quitline (ASQ)
If a smoker has had a failure to stop smoking on their own will, try using a free service that specializes in smoking cessation. People who call the ASQ are twice as likely to quit for good. A trained advisor will help you make a personal plan. We also provide smokers two weeks of free nicotine patches in the mail for free.
• Get Support
Research shows that support while quitting can really help. Talk with your family and friends about your plan to quit during Mid-Autumn Festival gathering. Let them know what they can do to help you and cheer for you.
After Mid-Autumn Festival, there is Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year holidays coming one after another. If you want to fully engage the gathering time with friends and family without looking for smoking areas on holidays and even on everyday, call ASQ to start quit smoking plan today!
ASQ offers service to help smokers who speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese to quit smoking.
ASQ is operated by the Asian Smokers’ Quitline (ASQ). ASQ provides FREE evidence based smoking cessation services in Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese to Asian communities in the U.S. Studies have shown that smokers who enroll in ASQ services double their chances of quitting successfully.
We encourage all Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin), Korean and Vietnamese speaking smokers to call ASQ if they want free help quitting smoking. Friends and family of smokers may also enroll to learn how to help smokers quit. Cessation advisors who speak Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin), Korean and Vietnamese are ready to offer useful information. Smokers can receive a free two-week supply of nicotine patches while supplies last.
We encourage health care providers and community leaders to refer Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin), Korean and Vietnamese speaking smokers by visiting our website and selecting “Web Referral”. ASQ will provide cessation advice and free patches at no cost to your patients.
Visit www.asq-shop.org to order free promotional materials and fact sheets about smoking. Shipping is free.
Over 13,000 Asian language speakers from all 50 states have enrolled in ASQ services since 2012. ASQ is funded by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC).
ASQ is open Monday through Friday, 7am to 9pm Pacific Time (10am – Midnight Eastern
Time).
To enroll, call or register online today!
• Mandarin & Cantonese 1-800-838-8917 www.asq-chinese.org
• Korean 1-800-556-5564 www.asq-korean.org
• Vietnamese 1-800-778-8440 www.asq-viet.org
To learn more about ASQ in English, visit: www.asiansmokersquitline.org.