No Smoking For A Day

The ninth annual Great American Smokeout hit Harvard yesterday, as students urged smokers to take the first step toward quitting forever--quitting for a day.

Undergraduate volunteers manned tables in dining halls across campus and gave out literature and such anti-smoking paraphernalia as headless matches, buttons and chocolate kisses.

The president of The Cynthia Stanton Memorial Cancer Council of Harvard/Radcliffe, Heidi A. Waldorf '86, who also coordinated the drive, said "We want people to realize that smoking is a dangerous game to play with."

Waldorf estimated that 80 percent of the smokers she encounters want to quit, but have trouble finding the initiative. "People are afraid of gaining weight when they quit smoking," said Waldorf, so students in dining halls yesterday counseled smokers to fight the urge to smoke by substituting cinnamon sticks, chewing gum and low-calorie snacks like pumpkin seeds.