WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published an update to its 1996 Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline, Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, which contains revised and improved recommendations to providers and clinicians so that they can better assist smokers in quitting. The guideline also confirms that there has never been a better time for smokers to quit than right now.

With the release of these new guidelines, smokers can receive improved strategies from physicians and other health care providers to help successfully quit smoking. The guidelines definitively state that combining FDA-approved pharmacotherapies and counseling is the most effective way for smokers to end addiction to tobacco products. The Public Health Service also finds that cessation treatments are cost-effective and that providing these treatments through healthcare systems will increase the number of people who seek treatment for smoking, attempt to quit and successfully quit.

"These new guidelines underscore how important it is for smokers to receive assistance quitting," said Bernadette Toomey, President and CEO, of the American Lung Association. "The American Lung Association stands ready to help smokers quit through our different smoking cessation programs and resources."