Find out about the risks of smoking, the benefits of quitting, the dangers of secondhand smoke and how smoking could be harming your children. This No Smoking Day, 12th March 2008, take The Great No Smoking Day Challenge and quit smoking to look and feel healthier, fitter and better – not to mention saving a huge amount of cash.
Three quarters of smokers would like to stop and every No Smoking Day over a million try. To help you along, we’ve listed everything you need to know about smoking’s health risks, the dangers to those around you, and the process of quitting. That way, you’ll know exactly what you’re up against – but you’ll also know exactly why it’s completely worth it.
The Facts About Smoking:
Around 114,000 people in the UK are killed by smoking every year – that’s five times higher than the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents – accounting for one fifth of all UK deaths.
How Your Smoking Affects Your Children
Almost half of British children are secondhand smokers at home, and more than 17,000 children under the age of five are taken to hospital every year because of the effects of passive smoking. Find out about the health risks.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with around 33,600 deaths each year and one person being diagnosed with lung cancer every fifteen minutes. And more than 90 per cent of lung cancers are caused by smoking, either directly or through secondhand smoke. But it’s not the only cancer caused by smoking.
Every year, about 33,000 deaths in the UK are attributable to diabetes – 1 in 7 of all deaths, and research shows that smoking significantly increases your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Even people who do not smoke, but are regularly exposed to others’ smoking (called secondhand smoke or passive smoking), are prone to most of the negative health effects that smokers themselves experience.
In the UK, almost half of women smokers manage to quit once they become pregnant, but more than 30 per cent continue to smoke during pregnancy, 17 per cent doing so regularly. Read about why that’s dangerous for the unborn baby.
Smoking: An Addiction as Strong As Heroin!
It’s not just in your mind, smoking really is addictive – and you’ll feel real physical withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit.
Besides feeling healthier and happier mentally, the positive physical effects of finally kicking the habit are endless. Find out what happens to your body hour by hour after you stop smoking.
Craving a cigarette? Perhaps you’ll think twice when you read these shocking statistics – including how much it’s costing you to support your habit!
It’s more than half a year since the axe went down on smoking in public places – but has the smoking ban really made a difference, or was it just an expensive way of making the outdoor areas of pubs and restaurants extremely fashionable?
Five Easy Steps to Quit Smoking
Nicotine is a very addictive drug and people usually try to quit two or three times, or more, before they successfully kick the habit. Make this the one that sticks.
Kate Thornton: How I Quit Smoking
The smoking ban left the UK’s 12 million smokers facing a very bleak winter. We chatted to TV presenter Kate Thornton about why quitting was the most rewarding thing she’s ever done.
