Being a quitter
In the last decade it seems that more people are quitting than starting. In fact, despite a significant decrease in the number of smokers, still more than 400,000 Americans die from tobacco-related illnesses every year. It is estimated that tobacco-related health-care costs exceed $100 billion annually. After a summer of government spending, that may seem like a drop in the bucket, but these numbers help to push up the cost of health insurance for all of us.
Though many long-term smokers believe that the damage has already been done, the American Cancer Society counsels us that within 12 hours of quitting, even a long-term smoker’s level of carbon monoxide can reduce to that of a non-smoker.
The longer, the better says the American Cancer Society — after ten years, many other health risks associated with smoking are reduced to a non-smoker’s level. Consider that quitting today you could rival the health of the average non-smoker on the topic of cancer, stroke, or heart disease risks.
According to LiveStrong.com, the average male smoker’s lifespan is reduced by 13.2 years and the average female smoker’s lifespan reduced by 14.5 years.
On 22 June 2009, President Obama signed legislation that gives the FDA regulatory power over the marketing and sale of tobacco. Known as the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, this law gives the FDA power to ban candy-flavored and fruit-flavored cigarettes among other marketing-messaging and product-content control.
With that law now in place, this week, federal health officials, banned the sale of flavored cigarettes in a story reported by NYTimes.com. They also have indicated that more limits may be in store against the far-larger market of flavored little cigars and cigarillos.
Many believe that flavored tobacco products are appealing and enticing to first-time smokers, including America’s younger generations. “These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers,” said Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, in announcing the ban.
Even with a notable reduction in the number of smokers, statistics found at AmericanHeart.org and other sites are alarming:
- In the United States, an estimated 26.2 million men (23.5%) and 20.9 million women (18.1%) are smokers.
- In 2004, 17-year-old smokers were more than three times as likely as those over the age of 25 to smoke flavored cigarettes, and they viewed flavored cigarettes as safer.
- Among whites, 23.5% of men and 18.8% of women smoke (2006).
- Among blacks, 26.1% of men and 18.5% of women smoke.
- Among Hispanics, 20.1% of men and 10.1% of women smoke.
- Among non-Hispanic Asians, 16.8% of men and 4.6% of women smoke.
- Among American Indians/Alaska Natives, 35.6% of men and 29.0% of women smoke.
Passive rulings such as public-area smoking bans may not be the best path though. According to a new study quoted at BioMedicine.org, “it has been observed that motivating people to give up smoking, after a cancer diagnosis, is not necessarily more effective than just ordering them to quit.”
By following two groups — those that received motivation therapy and those that were told to quit — even though motivation therapy involved more time, effort, and expense, it was not more effective. Here again, many believed that once they had already been diagnosed with a smoking-related illness, it was too late to quit, but since smoking restricts blood supply and collagen metabolism, quitting may help you to heal faster.
Dave Hitt, in his blog on the facts of second-hand smoke, sheds some light on the famous EPA study released in 1992 by exposing a number of misconceptions and misquotes in reference to this report.
For starters, the report claimed that second-hand smoke (SHS) causes 3,000 deaths a year, and for this reason SHS has been classified as a class A carcinogen. Although the study has been found incredibly faulty and was legally vacated, governmental agencies refer to it frequently to support their stances in all sorts of bans against smoking, for example the elimination or reduction of public-area smoking sections. In actuality, the exposure (for people who live and/or work in smoky environments) is about six cigarettes per year as supported by studies that measured actual exposure by having non-smokers wear monitors.
Whether or not the study is correct, it is widely accepted that smoking simply isn’t good for you and combined with other drugs, such as birth-control pills, it can be downright life threatening.
I am a former smoker and occasionally feel the need to indulge. I think of it like salt: no, it’s not good for me, but in moderation it’s a lot less dangerous than texting while driving.