Benefits of Quitting Smoking

David Neville is a Coordinator with the Utah Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Control Program and lets people know the benefits that come from quitting smoking.


Benefits of quitting:

• Within 20 min, your pulse rate and blood pressure return to normal

• Within 24 hours your risk of heart attack decreases

• Within 48 hours your sense of smell and taste begins to improve

• Within 72 hours your lung capacity increases

• Within three months you get sick less often

• After 1 year your risk of heart attack decreases by half

Health effects of cigarette smoking:

• Each year, more than 1,100 Utah adults die as a result of their own smoking, and an estimated 140 to 250 adults, children, and babies die due to secondhand smoke exposure.

• Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body—causing many diseases and reducing the overall health of smokers.

• Smoking causes nearly 90% of lung cancer deaths in men and almost 80% of lung cancer deaths in women.

• Smoking causes coronary heart disease—the leading cause of death in the U.S.

• A person’s risk for stroke nearly doubles if he or she is a smoker.

• The risk of dying from chronic obstructive lung disease increases ten times for smokers.

Gunter von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS 3 Information:

• The TRUTH Anti-Tobacco Campaign is the sponsor of the lung portion of the exhibit, which displays healthy lungs and lungs of smokers—one with lung cancer and another with emphysema.

• Body Worlds is open Sunday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

• For information and tickets, visit http://theleonardo.org/bodyworlds/index.php

For help in quitting, call the tobacco Quit Line at 1-888-567 TRUTH or visit www.utahquitnet.com


References:

1. Smoking and Tobacco Use fact sheet. (2008). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/health_effects.htm#

2. Utah Department of Health. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). 2007. Salt Lake City: Utah Department of Health. Center for Health Data.

3. Utah Department of Health. Utah Health Status Survey, 2001-2006. Salt Lake City: Utah Department of Health. Center for Health Data.

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