Effects of Smoking

In this program, we teach you how to change your lifestyle so you can make this quit your very last. And we not only help you quit; we get you on the road to living a happier and healthier lifestyle.

While you’re enrolled in this program we want you to focus on the positive effects of quitting and how much progress you’re making. We don’t want you to focus on the negative effects of smoking. You already know that smoking is bad for your health (and the health of those around you) so focusing on these negative effects doesn’t really help you quit.

However, some people want to know how bad smoking is for your health. For those who want to know, here are a few facts. After you review these facts, focus on the benefits of quitting.

General Statistics

• Approximately 1/3 of the male adult global population smokes.
• Smoking related-diseases (cancers, emphysema, second-hand smoke, etc.) kill one in 10 adults globally, or cause four million deaths each year.
• By 2030, if current trends continue, smoking will kill one out of every six people.
• Every eight seconds, someone dies from tobacco use.
• Smoking is on the rise in the developing world but falling in developed nations. Among Americans, smoking rates shrunk by nearly half in three decades (from the mid-1960s to mid-1990s), falling to 23% of adults by 1997. In the developing world, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4% per year.
• About 15 billion cigarettes are sold daily - or 10 million every minute.
• About 12 times more British people have died from smoking than from World War II.
• Cigarettes cause more than one in five American deaths.
• The tobacco market is controlled by just a few corporations – mostly American, British and Japanese multinational conglomerates.

Youth

• Among young teens (aged 13 to 15), about one in five smokes worldwide.
• Between 80,000 and 100,000 children worldwide start smoking every day - roughly half of whom live in Asia.
• Evidence shows that around 50% of those who start smoking in adolescent years go on to smoke for 15 to 20 years.
• Peer-reviewed studies show teenagers are heavily influenced by tobacco advertising.
• About a quarter of youth alive in the Western Pacific Region will die from smoking.

Health

• Half of long-term smokers will die from tobacco. Every cigarette smoked cuts at least five minutes of life on average - about the time taken to smoke it.
• Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death. It is a prime factor in heart disease, stroke and chronic lung disease. It can cause cancer of the lungs, larynx, oesophagus, mouth, and bladder, and contributes to cancer of the cervix, pancreas, and kidneys.
• Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer, killing more people than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined.
• More than 4,000 toxic or carcinogenic chemicals have been found in tobacco smoke.
• One British survey found that nearly 99% of women did not know of the link between smoking and cervical cancer.
• One survey found that 60% of Chinese adults did not know that smoking can cause lung cancer while 96% were unaware it can cause heart disease.
• At least a quarter of all deaths from heart diseases and about three-quarters of world's chronic bronchitis are related to smoking.
• Smoking-related diseases cost the United States more than $150 billion a year.

Source: World Health Organisation

Now that you’ve read the above information, let’s focus on the benefits of quitting.