Friendly Print preview 
Do you know why you want to stop smoking? People who have quit say it's
important to be clear about your reasons. Here are some of the best reasons we know.
Smoking kills
Every year, about 19,000 Australians die from diseases caused by smoking.' One in
two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle
age.'
Cigarettes are full of poisons
Tobacco smoke contains over
4,000 chemicals.' As well as tar and nicotine, there is also the gas carbon monoxide
(found in car exhaust fumes), ammonia (found in floor cleaner) and arsenic (found in rat
poison).' At least 43 of the chemicals in tobacco smoke are known to cause cancers of the
lung, throat, mouth, bladder and kidneys." Tobacco smoke also contributes to a number
of other cancers.
- Nicotine is the addictive drug in tobacco.' The mixture of nicotine and carbon
monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your head rate and blood
pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels.' This can cause heart attacks and
stroke. It slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands.' Some smokers
end up having their limbs amputated.
- Tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. A 20-a-day smoker
breathes in up to a full cup (210 g) of tar in a year.' Changing to low-tar cigarettes
doesn't help because smokers usually take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer,
dragging the tar deeper into their lungs."
- Carbon monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your
whole body - especially your heart - work harder." Over time, your airways swell up
and let less air into your lungs."
 
Smoking causes disease
 Smoking is a
slow way to die. The strain put on your body by smoking often causes years of suffering.
Emphysema is an illness that slowly rots your lungs. People with emphysema often
get bronchitis again and again, and suffer lung and heart failure .12
Lung cancer is caused by the tar in tobacco smoke." Men who smoke are ten
times more likely to die from lung cancer than non smokers.
A diseased lung stained by tar. (opposite)
This lung removed from a smoker, shows a lung cancer (white tissue) blocking
the main air passage to the right lung. The tumour extends to the outside of the lung.
Picture courtesy of the Prince Charles Hospital Departmet of Pathology
and Medical Photography
Heart disease and strokes are also more common among smokers than non-smokers-'
Smoking causes fat deposits to narrow and block blood vessels which leads to heart
attack.' Smoking causes around one in five deaths from heart disease.' In younger people,
three out of four deaths from heart disease are due to smoking."
More good reasons to quit
- Confidence. Quitting smoking is a challenge. Once you have quit, you will know
you can succeed at a difficult job and take control of your life. Quitting helps you
believe in yourself and take on other challenges.
- Fitness. Smoking makes it harder to exercise and reduces the benefits to your
body." Smokers have more coughs and colds than non-smokers and take longer to feel
well again.'
- Money. In a way, giving up smoking is like getting a pay rise, as much as $2500*
a year if you smoke 25 cigarettes a day.
- Your appearance. Skin starved of oxygen by smoking becomes dry and grey."'
Wrinkles around the eyes and mouth develop much earlier,"" and the tar stains
your teeth and fingers.
- Fertility and childbirth. Men who smoke may suffer impotence due to damage to the
blood vessels in the penis." Sperm quality and density can also be affected by
smoking. Smokers may produce less sperm and their sperm may have more abnormalities.'
Women who smoke take longer to conceive and are more likely to have a miscarriage."'
- Babies born to mothers who smoked in pregnancy are more likely to be premature,
stillborn or die shortly after birth."' A baby exposed to tobacco smoke has a higher
risk of dying from cot death."
- Children whose parents smoke are more likely to get pneumonia and bronchitis in
their first year of life, to suffer from more frequent and more severe asthma attacks 2
1 and to become regular smokers themselves. 22
*At the time of publication.
 
Extacted
from "Quit because you can" booklet - Victorian Smoking and Health
Program
PO Box 888 Carlton South, Victoria, 3053, Australia. © 1997
North
East Valley Division General Practice, Victoria,
Australia, Disclaimer
Level 1, Pathology Building, Repatriation Campus, A&RMC,
Heidelberg West VIC 3081. .. map
Phone: 03 9496 4333, Fax: 03 9496 4349, Email: nevdgp@nevdgp.org.au,
Please note: NEVDGP does not provide
an on-line consultation
|
|
