RENO – Nic O’Tine stopped every motorist whose attention was caught by the giant ashtray standing in the middle of the street behind St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center on Thursday. Occasionally, a driver would throw out a carton of cigarettes into the ashtray with the promise to quit, prompting Nic O’Tine to cheer with excitement and give them free information and a cold turkey sandwich.

“We’re giving out matches that have a positive message on them and that just reminds them if you choose to smoke, we’re not going to take that right away from you; it’s America,” said Nic, also known as professional actor Cline Moore from Sacramento, Calif. “However, don’t impinge on someone else’s rights as well.”

Reno-Sparks’ three local hospitals coordinated Thursday’s Great American Smoke-Out event to encourage locals to stop smoking. With the help of two cigarette buddies, played by youths participating in Teens Against Tobacco Use (TATU), Moore and representatives from the American Lung Association, Renown Health and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center stood in front of St. Mary’s entrance on Arlington Avenue to encourage smokers to give up their cigarettes permanently.

According to the American Cancer Society, within the first 24 hours of quitting, a person’s risk of heart attack declines significantly and within 48 hours, their senses of taste and smell improve. Their health is enhanced after a few months when the cilia, or hair-like brushes in the lungs, grow back and help prevent infection. After 10 years, an ex-smoker’s risk of lung cancer becomes close to that of a non-smoker.

Bridget Stockham, a Renown smoking cessation expert, said quitting cold turkey today is more difficult than it was just a few decades ago.

“I remember back when my grandparents told the story about the day when the surgeon general came on TV and told America that cigarettes were bad for your health,” Stockham said, “and they were shocked because prior to that, cigarettes were marketed almost as a health food product, something that was supposed to be good for you. And the instant they heard the surgeon general say that on TV, both my grandparents threw their cigarettes in the garbage can and that was it. They quit cold turkey.”

The event precedes a new policy taking effect on Jan. 1, 2010, that prohibits smoking on the grounds of all northern Nevada hospitals.

Michael Johnson, vice president of community health and mission integration, said the CEOs of the hospitals — Mark Crawford of Northern Nevada, Jim Miller of Renown Regional and Mike Uboldi of St. Mary’s — were interested in collaborating on a project that would benefit all three hospitals.

“There are smokers on these grounds between what you see here as visitors come by, employees who smoke, vendors … Being a hospital, it just makes sense and we’re making a statement about health and safety,” Johnson said. “We episodically get patients who insist on smoking in their beds while they’re in the hospital, which you can just imagine the hazard of that kind of situation.”

Employees will still have their right to smoke if they choose, Johnson said, but they will have to comply with regulations when they’re on the hospital's property. To encourage them to quit, he said the hospital will provide cessation classes for all employees for $25. A short-term supply of nicotine replacement products will be available in the gift shop.

At Renown, Stockham runs a program to help new ex-smokers quash their dependence on nicotine long-term by helping with behavior modifications and healthy habits.

“They struggle,” she said. “It’s very different with the addictive properties of cigarettes today. People need some sort of pharmacological agent to assist them.”

A new employee with the American Lung Association, Tammy Jares, was on her first outing Thursday to help with the cause. Jares lost her best friend a year ago to lung cancer after the friend smoked for 40 years. Jares often took her to chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

“It’s just very devastating to see a vibrant young woman lose her life to (lung cancer),” Jares said.

She said 1,258 people in the U.S. die each day from smoking-related illnesses. Her goal is to get more people to stop smoking, especially students.

“We go into the high schools with the TATU program and teach them the program so they can go to middle schools and elementary schools and talk to kids about not smoking,” she said. “We have a tar jar that shows what’s in a person’s lung after a month’s worth of smoking.”

The jar's glassy surface is coated with tar and phlegm.

Moore, who began and quit smoking in high school, actively participates in programs and events similar to the Great American Smoke-Out in the region. He said it’s important for everyone to be mindful of the health of those around them.

“Make sure that everybody can co-exist,” he said. “A lot of these preventable illnesses would not seize our community if people made better decisions. Be cognizant and conscious and really polite about it.”