|
Smoking Cessation
What is it?
Smoking is an addiction that currently affects approximately 70.8 million people in the United States. It has been identified by the American Lung Association as the most important source of preventable morbidity and early mortality worldwide. In the U.S., smoking is responsible for 1 in 5 deaths. Smoking costs the U.S. economy over $167 billion in health care costs and lost productivity each year.
A person who smokes often feels the compulsive need to light up that next cigarette. Many smokers cannot wait until their next cigarette to make the nicotine craving go away.
Cigarette smoke contains many compounds that are harmful to the body. Tar in the smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 60 that have been shown to cause cancer. Smoking causes approximately 90% of all lung cancers. Other chemicals in the smoke cause lung and heart disease.
The following are just a few of the chemicals surprisingly found in cigarette smoke:
- Cyanide
- Benzene
- Formaldehyde
- Methanol (wood alcohol)
- Acetylene (fuel used in welding torches)
- Ammonia
- Poisonous gases including nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide
These chemicals inhaled by a smoker or nonsmoker (via second hand smoke?see below) are known to either cause or worsen the following health problems:
- Cancers: lung, oral, larynx (throat), esophageal, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach, colon
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (emphysema and chronic bronchitis)
- Chronic "smoker's cough"
- Asthma
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Peptic ulcer disease
- Gastric Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD or heartburn)
- Diabetes
Secondhand smoke, also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is smoke inhaled by a person who is in an environment where tobacco smoke is being produced by another person. Secondhand smoke contains the same amount of cancer-causing chemicals as smoke inhaled directly by a smoker. In 1993, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that there is sufficient evidence that secondhand smoke causes cancer in humans. However, researchers are unsure at this time what amount of secondhand smoke exposure is needed to cause cancer. Approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths occur each year among nonsmokers in the United States as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke. It has also been shown that persons living in a home with smokers are at the highest risk of developing cancer from secondhand smoke. According to the American Cancer Society, sitting in a nonsmoking section of a restaurant for two hours is equal to smoking one and a half cigarettes. In addition, a nonsmoker sitting behind a smoker in a bar for two hours breathes in the equivalent of four cigarettes.
|
What is it?
