According to the Centers For Disease Control, secondhand smoke may be a lot more harmful than commonly believed. The CDC also says, smoking bans are saving lives and reducing the rate of heart attacks.

Source

Another study confirms that areas that have a smoking ban experience significant drops in heart attack rates. These findings also teach us a lot about the danger of secondhand smoke.

These latest stats came in today from Colorado.

A smoking ban in one Colorado city led to a dramatic drop in heart attack hospitalizations, according to a new study that is considered the best and longest-term research to show such a link.

The rate of hospitalized cases dropped 41 percent three years after the ban of workplace smoking in Pueblo, Colo., took effect. There was no such drop in two neighboring areas, and researchers believe it’s a clear sign the ban was responsible.

The study suggests that secondhand smoke may be a terrible and under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths in this country, said one of its authors, Terry Pechacek of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least eight earlier studies have linked smoking bans to decreased heart attacks, but none ran as long as three years.

Smoking bans are designed not only to cut smoking rates but also to reduce secondhand tobacco smoke. It is a widely recognized cause of lung cancer, but its effect on heart disease can be more immediate. It not only damages the lining of blood vessels, but also increases the kind of blood clotting that leads to heart attacks. Reducing exposure to smoke can quickly cut the risk of clotting, some experts said.

Secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 heart disease deaths and about 3,000 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers each year, according to statistics cited by the CDC.

Source

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) asked all smokers in Australia to gift their loved ones with the best Christmas gift ever this year: to stop smoking.

"Top of the list of gift ideas has got to be making a commitment to your family, and to yourself, to quit smoking in 2009," said AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua.

She said, the report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that revealed lung cancer is outstripping breast cancer as a killer of women emphasized the need for Australians to tackle this dangerous habit right now.

Dr Capolingua urged smokers to think about quitting as something not just for themselves but also for the important people in their lives.

"Smokers need to think about the consequences of their addiction - how it does and will impact on the people close to them.

"This is not just about the very real health risks of passive smoking, it’s about the example you set for those around you, particularly kids, and the worry you cause your loved ones by smoking.

"Smokers also need to seriously consider the risks to their own health and how this will impact on their family.

"Smoking is a death-sentence - you’re actively sacrificing years you could spend with your loved ones.

"By quitting, you will reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, blindness, sexual dysfunction and infertility to name just a few. Quitting is the best favor you can do yourself, and it is never too late or too early to quit.

"There is no better present to friends and family than making the commitment to be healthier, and live longer."

Source

In 1990, San Luis Obispo set a trend that many states followed soon, when it was the first city in the U.S. to enforce a smoking ban in public buildings, that included bars and restaurants. Now it is considering putting a stop to smoking outdoors.

Mayor Dave Romero and the city council will bounce around ideas in the spring or early summer of 2009.

Will San Luis Obispo once again be setting the pace for the rest of the country?

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

Source

Secondhand smoke is one very important reason for parents to stop smoking, but it is also important to note that kids whose parents smoke are twice as likely to light up themselves when they get older.

Source

Parents magazine and the American Legacy Foundation® have teamed up to create Parents Quit for Good, a special quit smoking plan for moms and dads, just in time to help parents plan their New Year’s resolutions to stop smoking.

Nearly two-thirds of smoking parents report their child has been exposed to secondhand smoke in the past week.

Source

This is crucially important information for women who are pregenant - and their smoking partners (the secondhand smoke). Find out why both should stop smoking at the first indication of a pregnancy.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

In research that might have implications for human reproduction, U.S. and Chinese scientists have found that cigarette smoke damages mouse eggs and embryos.

The study was designed to examine whether cigarette smoke causes oxidative stress, cell death and dysfunction, and the shortening of telomeres (DNA at the ends of chromosomes that protect them from degradation). Two groups of female mice were exposed to cigarette smoke or cigarette smoke condensate for four weeks and compared to a control group of mice.

The mice exposed to cigarette smoke or the condensate were more likely than the unexposed mice to show increased fragmentation and delayed fertilization, resulting in impaired embryo development, the study found.

The fragmented eggs also showed oxidative stress, and embryos from mice exposed to cigarette smoke or condensate for four weeks before fertilization were more likely to contain dead cells and altered expression of the protein Oct4, which plays an important role in the formation of viable blastocysts (a stage of embryonic development).

The study was published in the November issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Source

Reasons To Stop Smoking: Cancer #1 Killer By 2010, WHO Says

By 2010, cancer will be the leading killer in the world, surpassing heart disease, causing more deaths than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

Unless new treatments are found, there could be 27 million people with cancer by 2030, and 17 million cancer deaths annually. And, there could be 75 million people living with cancer within five years after diagnosis, according to a new report, 2008 World Cancer Report, released Tuesday by the World Health Organization.

Smoking is the major avoidable risk for cancer and cancer deaths around the world. Currently, some 1.3 billion people smoke. The true burden of cancers and deaths from smoking are yet to be seen.

Source

Reasons to Stop Smoking: Benefits Of Quitting Smoking

It helps to stop smoking, even if you’ve smoked for years.

Within days, your blood vessels will regain much of the normal function that is damaged by smoking. Within weeks, you’ll be able to taste food better, and your sense of smell will recover from tobacco’s assault. Within months, symptoms of chronic bronchitis ease up, and lung function improves within a year.

Quitting smoking reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke within two to five years. And the risk of lung cancer begins to drop substantially within five to nine years of quitting smoking.

People who kick the habit, regardless of age, live longer than those who continue to smoke. And since each pack of cigarettes costs our society $7.18, quitting smoking will help America’s budget as well as yours.

Source

Reasons To Stop Smoking - A Reality Check

At the risk of running a little longer than I usually do here, I feel that, as another year is coming to an end, it is time for a much needed reality check:

Smoking is bad news and everybody knows it - whether we are talking about smokers harming their own health, or that of people around them via secondhand smoke.

And while over 45 million Americans have quit smoking, and smoking bans are in effect all over the place, more than 20 % of US adults are smokers, and every day thousands of teens are taking up that habit.

Smoking is the #1 killer in the nation: 1 out of 5 deaths are caused by nicotine and tobacco. This translates into 20% of all cardiac deaths and almost a half a million casualties annually.

On average, a nonsmoker lives roughly 14 years longer than a smoker. And the American Cancer Society says, that 650 million of the 1,3 billion smokers alive today who don’t stop smoking will pay for their habit with their lives…

Almost 9 million Americans suffer from smoking related diseases: lung-, throat-, mouth-, tongue- and breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, artery disease, emphysema, COPD,  bronchitis, and pneumonia.

And that’s not all: Smoking also contributes to diabetes, osteoporosis, cataracts, sinusitis, dental disease, prematurely aging skin, heartburn, and, in men, bladder cancer and erectile dysfunction.

And, no, so called "light" cigarettes are not any "healthier" than regular ones.

Make sure you do not become part of any of the above mentioned stats. Check out how you too can easily stop smoking - if you truly desire to do so.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT