ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

The Campaign for the Quit Quarter was started by Dr. John Oyston, an anesthesiologist in Toronto, Ontario.

During his work as an anesthesiologist, he is a witness to the damage smoking does to the body, as he cares for patients undergoing surgery for lung cancer, leg amputations, and other conditions which are caused by smoking.

These patients often have medical conditions such as ischaemic heart disease and chronic bronchitis, which are caused by smoking, and which increase the risk of anesthesia.

He is frustrated at how poorly these patients do after surgery, as cigarette smoking interferes with their wound healing and causes them to have breathing problems after surgery.

He founded a campaign, called Stop Smoking for Safer Surgery to encourage people to stop smoking before surgery. However it would be better if they stopped smoking before smoking caused them to have health problems, or if they never even started to smoke.

As a result, he decided that a novel approach was needed to promote smoking cessation, and came up with the idea of a Quit Quarter to promote awareness.

Dr. Oyston holding up a giant Quit Quarter.