People give up smoking for many reasons, from a desire to improve their health and to save money, to wanting to appeal to the opposite sex or reduce any potential harm on someone else's health.
IMPROVING YOUR HEALTH
In the UK one person dies from a smoking-related disease every four minutes. Smoking causes:
- lung cancer (smoking causes over 80 per cent of all lung cancer deaths)
- heart disease
- bronchitis
- strokes
- stomach ulcers
- leukaemia
- gangrene
- other cancers e.g. mouth and throat cancer
It can also worsen colds, chest problems and allergies like hay fever, bronchitis and emphysema, as well as have unpleasant side-effects such as wrinkles and bad breath. Smoking can also make you cough, sneeze or feel short of breath when you exercise, and is also linked to blindness from a disorder called macular degeneration.
SAVING MONEY
Calculate how much money your smoking habit is costing and you might be surprised how much you could save.
PROTECTING OTHER PEOPLE'S HEALTH
Breathing in other peoples cigarette smoke, called secondhand smoke, can also cause cancer.
- smoking around children - children exposed to secondhand smoke are twice as likely to get chest illnesses like croup, pneumonia bronchitis and bronchiolitis, and more likely to get ear infections, tonsillitis, wheezing and childhood asthma
- mothers-to-be and smoking - smoking during pregnancy can affect both you and your baby’s health, and if you are exposed to secondhand smoke this can pass on harmful gases and chemicals to your baby. These conditions, like asthma, cause lifelong health problems.
- smoking in public - smoking is banned by law in many public places, including: all forms of public transport; theatres; cinemas; and public buildings
- Cot death and smoking
- How smoking affects you and your unborn child
- More about the government's tobacco policies