Reno County Tobacco Use Prevention Coalition RENO COUNTY KANSAS
When you're ready to quit, the number to call is
1-866-KAN-STOP
(526-7867)
Qualified counselors are available 24 hours a day to help you quit. CALL TODAY! |
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Ready to Quit?
Over 3 million Americans quit smoking every year, and you can do it, too!
It is never too late to stop, and when you do stop, your body begins to repair itself immediately.
There will be many healthy changes, some of which will continue their improvement over several years:
Within 20 minutes, your heart rate calms down.
Within 8 hours, there is much more oxygen in your blood, and mucus begins to clear out of your lungs, making it easier to breathe.
Within 48 hours, things smell and taste better.
Within 9 months, you have less sinus congestion, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
After 1 year, your risk of dying of a heart attack is cut in half.
After 5 years, you have much less chance of having a stroke.
After 10 years, your risk of getting lung cancer is cut in half.
 A Killing Disease
Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing nearly 440,000 deaths each year and resulting in an annual cost of more than $75 billion in direct medical costs.
Nationally, smoking results in more than 5.5 million years of potential life lost each year.
The majority of adult smokers started smoking by the age of 18. Every day, an estimated 3,900 young people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette.
More than 6.4 million children living today will die prematurely because of a decision they will make as adolescents — the decision to smoke cigarettes.
Roughly 48 million adults in the U.S. smoke cigarettes, and more than 430,000 of them die of smoking-related causes each year. Since the first Surgeon General's report on smoking in 1964, tobacco use has resulted in the death of more than 10 million Americans.* Most adults regret ever having started, and approximately 40% report having attempted to quit for a day or more in the past year.
Second Hand Smoke - What is it?
 Second hand, also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or passive smoke, is a mixture of two forms of smoke from burning tobacco products.
Sidestream smoke: smoke that comes from a lighted cigarette, pipe, or cigar
Mainstream smoke: smoke that is exhaled by a smoker
When nonsmokers are exposed to second hand smoke it is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking. Nonsmokers exposed to second hand smoke absorb nicotine and other compounds just as smokers do. The greater the exposure to second hand smoke, the greater the level of these harmful compounds in your body.
Why is Second Hand Smoke
a Problem?
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified second hand smoke as a Group A carcinogen, which means that there is sufficient evidence that it causes cancer in humans. Environmental tobacco smoke has also been classified as a "known human carcinogen" by the US Nation Toxicology Program.
Second hand smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds. More than 60 of these are known or suspected to cause cancer.
Second hand smoke can be harmful in many ways. In the United States alone, each year it is responsible. for:
- An estimated 35,000 to 40,000 deaths from heart disease in people who are not current smokers
- About 3,000 lung cancer deaths in non-smoking adults
- Other respiratory problems in non-smokers, including coughing, phlegm, chest discomfort, and reduced lung function
- 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis) in children younger than 18 months of age, which result in 7,5000 to 15,000 hospitalizations
- Increases in the number and severity of asthma attacks in about 200,000 to 1 million asthmatic children.
The long-term health effects of exposure to second hand smoke, also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), have been well established through scientific study during the past 2 decades. Strong evidence has linked ETS to the incidence of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. ETS exposure is now the third leading cause of preventable death in the US. The smoke from a burning cigarette contains many carcinogens, chemicals, and toxins, including tar, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, phenols, ammonia, formaldehyde, benzene, nitrosamine, and nicotine.
Children are especially vulnerable to all of these harmful compounds, and are often unable to protect themselves from being exposed. Adults who are exposed to ETS in the workplace have an increased risk of suffering from chronic respiratory illnesses.**
*Excerpts taken from Smoking, Risks, Perceptions, & Policy; Slovic, Paul, 2001.
**Excerpts taken from JAMA, Vol. 380, No.22.
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| A public health message from the Kansas Health Foundation. |
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