Health@ Heart
Scary data on smoking risks
Last Thursday, I gave a talk before the officials and employees of Salcon Power Corporation (a Napocor contractor in Naga, Cebu) on the health hazards of smoking as a part of the company's highly commendable campaign for a healthier lifestyle for its personnel. I would like to share with my readers the following startling information which I presented before this group. Hopefully, you and I can save even one life by educating our family, friends and neighbors on the deadly effects of smoking:
There are 4000 chemicals (600 of them poisons, 69 cancer-causing) in every stick of cigarette, toxic chemicals like those found in paint stripper, toilet cleaner, rocket fuel, lighter fuel, chemicals in moth balls, the poison used in the gas chamber, and other toxins.
Smoking causes almost 1/3 of all cancer deaths in the world
Smokeless tobacco - 50 times worse than regular cigarettes
Passive smoking - responsible for about 6,000 lung cancers among non-smokers and 35,000 deaths from secondhand smoke-related diseases per year
More than half a million are killed each year in the USA alone by smoking-related illnesses; 10 times more than car accidents; 12 times more than AIDS
And a lot more than all the military casualties in all wars in this century put together
One person in the USA dies of a heart attack every minute (mostly smokers).
One dies of other smoking-related illness every 3 minutes!
Smoking has orphaned billions of children around the globe, greater than all the wars combined has caused
Smokers die 13-14 years earlier than non-smokers
Risk of dying from lung cancer among smokers compared to non-smokers: 22 times greater in men and 12 times greater among women
Since 1950, lung cancer deaths among women have increased 600%
Smokers have three times risk of dying from heart attack
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths
California study (1988-1998): A light, a ray of hope, IF we follow this example.
Death rates dropped by 12% for cancers of the lung, pancreas, bladder and oro-pharynx, when smoking dropped from 22.8% to 18.4%. (In 2000, it was down to 17.1%)
Consumption dropped from 127 packs per day to 69 packs, a 45% decline. National average dropped by 25%.
QUITTING. The wonders of quitting are truly remarkable and they provide smokers who want to kick the habit great hopes for their future, as illustrated hereunder:
Twenty minutes after quitting:
Blood pressure drops to normal
Pulse rate drops to normal
Heart rate drops to normal
Circulation has already improved
Body temperature of hands and feet increase to normal
In 24 to 48 hours:
Chances of heart attack begin to decrease
Nerve endings in nose and mouth begin to regrow
Ability to smell and taste are enhanced
Mucus begins to clear from the lungs
One year after quitting:
Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's
Five years after:
Lung cancer death rate decreases by half
After ten years:
Lung cancer death rate is now equivalent to that of a non-smoker
Pre-cancerous cells are replaced by healthy cells
Risk of other cancers (mouth, throat, bladder, etc) decreases
At Fifteen years:
Those who kicked the habit are now at NO more at risk of heart disease than if you had never smoked!
All medical evidences available today make one thing absolutely clear: Tobacco is a poison. It maims and kills. Smoking is slow suicide that could end in a miserable death for the smoker and devastation for his/her family. Isn't it time to quit taking this poison? (Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com)