www.whoschoosing.org.uk

SMOKING

Introduction
...smoking can be hard to give up and is bad for your health!

Nearly everyone will be tempted to try a cigarette at some time.  There are advertisements that make smoking seem cool, film stars smoke, or friends may try to persuade you to have one.

On the other hand health experts - doctors, nurses, tell us they are dangerous, ex-smokers are relieved to have kicked the habit and many smokers wish they'd never started.  So, what should you do?

This section gives information about cigarettes and smoking.  Read through it and then you decide what choice you will make.

In Northern Ireland around 2,500 deaths each year are caused by diseases related to smoking - 6 deaths every day.  Tobacco is killing more people than illegal drug use, road traffic accidents, suicides, 'The Troubles' and AIDS combined!

Cigarette smoke contains around 4,000 chemicals, many of which are known to be harmful - 43 of the chemicals are known to cause cancer.

Smoking affects both smokers and people around smokers.  People who smoke put their health at risk and their breath, skin and clothes smell.  People around smokers who are forced to breath in the smoke from cigarettes become passive smokers.  Smokers only inhale 15% of the smoke from their cigarette, which leaves 85% in the surrounding air for other people to breathe in!

If you already smoke, giving up smoking will improve your health straight away.  Right now is the easiest time ever for you to give up - the longer you leave it the harder it will become to stop.  Remember, most adults started smoking when they were young and now wish they could stop but can't.

The Facts

You may think that there are plenty of good reasons to smoke but there are far more good reasons not to.  What choice will you make?  Did you know? 

·        Most adult smokers had their first puff before they were 18.

·        Many young people who say they are 'just experimenting' end up addicted to cigarettes.

·        Tobacco is the only legal product that, when used as intended, causes death.

·        Nicotine is addictive in ways similar to heroin, cocaine and alcohol.

·        In the U.K. passive smoking kills about 3,000 non-smokers each year from lung cancer.

·        Cigarettes kill more than 11,000 people worldwide EVERY DAY.  That's more people than are killed by alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, drugs, fires and AIDS all added together.

·        If you took 1,000 20 year olds from the U.K. who smoke cigarettes regularly, 1 will be murdered, 6 will die in road accidents, and about 500 will be killed by smoking (250 in middle age (35-69), and 250 more in old age).

·        Worldwide, tobacco companies spend more than £9 million every day on advertising to attract new smokers to replace the 11,000 who die each day.

·        86% of 12 to 17 year olds who smoke prefer the 3 most heavily advertised brands.  Only about 1/3 of adult smokers choose these brands.

·        Smokers are admitted to hospital on average 2 times more often than non-smokers.

·        A packet of 20 cigarettes costs around £4.00, this is the amount of money a smoker will spend in 1 year;
   Smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 1 year costs - £1,456
   Smoking 10 cigarettes a day for 1 year costs - £728
   Smoking 5 cigarettes a day for 1 year costs - £364
   Smoking 1 cigarette a day for 1 year costs - £72.80

·        40% of litter in the U.K. is smoking-related - over 90,000,000,000 butts a year.

·        Everybody isn't doing it - being a non-smoker is the norm in Northern Ireland in all age groups.

·        Cigarette smoke contains a radioactive element (Polonium 210)  - a research study showed that a 20-a-day smoker gets a dose of radiation each year equivalent to about 2,000 chest X-rays.

·        When a smoker inhales from a cigarette, about 70% of its tar is deposited into their lungs.

·        When smoke is inhaled, the effect of nicotine hits the brain about 8 seconds later.

·        Tobacco crops are genetically modified to increase nicotine levels.

·        The chemicals in cigarette smoke are so toxic, you wouldn't be allowed to bury them in a landfill site.

·        Passive smoking can cause cancer in pets - especially short-nosed dogs!

·        Smoking is the main cause of fatal domestic fires - 5,400 accidental fires and resulted in 187 deaths in 1996 in the UK.  Cigarette butts and matches also cause many fires in the countryside.

·        Cigarettes that are unusually cheap may have been smuggled into Northern Ireland from other countries with less regulation of the tobacco industry - they can contain higher levels of nicotine and tar, making them more addictive and more likely to cause cancer.

·        The World Health Organisation estimated that 500 million of the 5.3 billion people populating the earth in 1990 would die from diseases caused by tobacco.

·        Total world cigarette production was 5.45 trillion (5,450,000,000,000) in 1991, with the Chinese tobacco monopoly producing 1.5 trillion and Phillip Morris in second place with 640 million 'units'.  This was 300% total increase and a 50% per capita increase since 1950, and enough to supply every person on earth with 3 cigarettes per day.

·        World cigarette production doubled between 1967 and 1992.

·        Smoking was responsible for 100 million deaths in the 20th century.

·        It is estimated that smoking will be responsible for 1000 million deaths in the 21st century.

·        Low tar cigarettes expose the smoker to just as much tar as regular cigarettes, because smokers just puff harder on low tar cigarettes.

·        Tobacco companies have patents for less dangerous cigarettes that they have never used.

·        Smoking costs the NHS £1.7 billion a year.

·        Smoking causes 30% of cancer deaths, 25% of deaths from heart disease, and 83% of those caused by bronchitis and emphysema.

·        Tobacco smoke contains about 4,000 chemicals, including arsenic, cyanide, ammonia and the insecticide DDT.

·        Burning tobacco is the main source of indoor pollution in the developed world.

·        About 27% of adults in the U.K. are smokers - that means that the most of them, 73 out of every 100, are not.

The Smoke

Cigarette smoke contains around 4,000 chemicals, many of which are known to be highly poisonous and very harmful - over 40 are known to cause cancer.  The chemicals found in a cigarette include:

Carbon Monoxide
poisonous gas in car exhausts

Tar
used in road surfaces

Nicotine
used in pesticides

Acetone
used in paint stripper

Ammonia
used in cleaning agents

Arsenic
used in ant killer

Benzene
found in petrol fumes

Butane
used in lighter fuel

Formaldehyde
used as an embalming fluid

Hydrogen cyanide
used as a poison in gas chambers

Methanol
used in rocket fuel

Toluene
used as an industrial solvent

DDT
used as an insecticide

Radon
is a radioactive gas

Polonium
present in radioactive fallout

Passive Smoking

Passive smoking is when you are around someone who is smoking and you breathe in the smoke, which is coming from his or her cigarette.

A burning cigarette is like a mini chemical factory.  The smoke released from it contains thousands of toxic chemicals and many of these are known to cause cancer.

The smoker only inhales a small amount of the smoke (15%) - the rest of the smoke from the cigarette goes into the surrounding air (85%) for the rest of us to breathe in!

Passive smoking bothers many people and may make them suffer from coughs, sneezing, sore throats, red and running eyes, a runny nose, sneezing, nausea, dizziness or headaches.  The smell of cigarette smoke also clings to clothes, hair and furniture and makes them stink!

·           About 300 of the 40,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.K. each year are due to passive smoking.

·           Non-smokers exposed to passive smoking in everyday life have a higher risk of heart attacks.

·           Young people of parents who smoke inhale nicotine in amounts the same as if they were smoking 60-150 cigarettes per year.

·           Almost half of all young people in the U.K. live in homes with at least one smoker.

What can you do?

You have a right to breathe clean air.  Ask smokers not to smoke near you, especially when you are indoors or in a car.

Put no smoking signs up in your home or room or family car.  Remind smokers that smoking is not only bad for them but harms other people as well.

Smoking and the Environment

Litter
Cigarette butts and cigarette packets cause litter.  Smokers in the U.K. throw away about 20 million cigarette packets and about 300 million butts every day (which is a huge amount!).  Many of these end up adding litter to the streets, dirtying floors and damaging furniture.

Fire
Smoking is linked to accidental damage and loss of life through fire.  Tobacco contains additives to keep the cigarette alight - this increases the risk of fire.

Small children playing with matches or lighters, which have been left around by smokers, start some fires.

Throwing away a lighted cigarette or match near a forest can be very dangerous.  A forest fire destroys everything in its path.  Because young trees are destroyed along with older trees the damage is long lasting and expensive.

Farming Tobacco
Cigarettes are made from dried leaves of tobacco plants.  Tobacco is grown in many parts of the world, especially in the poorer, developing countries - e.g. Brazil and India.  Growing tobacco is a way for these countries to make much needed money.

Many poorer countries use wood to dry tobacco and have to cut down many trees to do this.  In countries where wood is used for cooking and heating then if it is also used to dry tobacco, there is less for the people to use to cook their food and heat their homes.

Tobacco companies encourage many local farmers in the poorer countries to grow tobacco instead of food even when there are food shortages.  This can mean less food available for the local community.

Tobacco plants take more nutrients from the soil than many other crops and because of this the land is made less fit for growing food.

Cutting down Forests
Cigarettes are wrapped in paper and are sold in packets.  They use large amounts of paper and therefore a lot of trees. 

Cutting down trees is one of the biggest threats to our environment.  Tree roots bind the soil together.  The leaves draw moisture into the air.  When the trees are cut down, rainfall is reduced and erosion of the soil is increased.  This can leave a bare landscape where nothing useful can be grown.  Land that might have been used for food crops may be useless.

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Northern Ireland
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Web - www.loveforlife.org.uk
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