With the New Year comes a slew of resolutions. Maybe you want to lose weight or finish a project you've been putting off for a long time. Or maybe you want to quit smoking.
This year the National Cancer Institute is creating a program specifically designed to help young smokers kick the habit.
Teens love their cell phones. So in an effort to help young smokers kick the habit, the National Cancer Institute is creating a new program called Smokefree txt. It's a free text message cessation service that provides 24 hour encouragement, advice, and tips to teens trying to quit smoking.
And it's easy. Teens sign up, and select a reasonable date to quit.
After that, text messages timed to their selected quit date are sent on a regular basis. Following their quit date, they will continue to receive texts for up to six weeks.
Smoking experts say six weeks is a critical time, because that's when people need the most support to stay off tobacco for good.
And the government agency also provides a website where teens can talk to one another about their efforts to quit.
According to the NCI, 20 percent of American teens are smokers and most will continue to smoke as they age.
Even though many teens want to quit, many don't know how. So the NCI is hoping this modern day advice line will help some kids through the difficult process of giving up smoking.
If this sounds like a program you'd like to take advantage of you can go to
teen.smokefree.gov or you can use your cell phone to sign up by texting the word QUIT to 47848.
