Today is the day to quit smoking

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Thursday is the 33rd annual Great American Smokeout. 

According to the American Cancer Society, one in five U.S. adults are smokers and 440,000 die prematurely every year.

Just over 44 percent of the 45.3 million Americans who smoke have attempted to quit for at least a day in the past year.

If you need incentive, consider this:

Twenty minutes after quitting, your heart rate and blood pressure drops.

One to nine months after quitting, coughing and shortness of breath decreas and you begin to regain lung function.

One year after quitting, you decrease your risk of heart disease by 50 percent.