March 18th is National Kick Butts day! Kick Butts Day is a cause that empowers young people to speak up and take action against tobacco use. Students from schools across the country hold hundreds of different events and activities that call attention to the problems caused by big tobacco and its attempts to market to youth in this country and around the world. (www.kickbuttsday.org/ 2015)
 

To help promote this cause SIMED Pulmonology’s gives us all a reminder on the risks of using tobacco products:

• Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States.   About 393,000 American lives are lost due to smoking related diseases.  Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).  It also causes other diseases such as coronary artery disease, strokes and other cancers. Smoking in pregnancy is associated with 20 to 30% of low-birth weight babies, 14% of preterm deliveries and as much as 10% of all infant deaths.  Cigarette smoke has over 4500 chemicals and 69 of these chemicals cause cancer.  Smoking causes 90% of lung cancer deaths. 3800 youth under the age of 18 smoke their 1st cigarette each day and 1000 youth under age 18 become daily smokers.
• Second hand smoke has been harmful to nonsmokers.  Second hand smoke causes 3400 lung cancers in nonsmokers.  46,000 nonsmokers die from heart attacks from second hand smoke. Secondhand smoke is known to cause 150,000-300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age. This has been associated with a range of 7500 to 15000 hospitalizations each year and also causing 430 sudden infant death syndrome in the U.S. annually.
• Smoking cost in the United States in 2004 was over $193 billion with $97 billion in lost productivity and $96 billion in direct health care expenditures.  Smoking is a very expensive habit. A pack of cigarettes in North Central Florida is approximately $6.  Thus, smoking a pack a day can cost $168 per month or $2184 annually. 
• Nicotine is the chemical that causes smoking addiction.  Interventions used in smoking cessation include counseling, medication or combination.  There are currently seven medications that are approved to aid in quitting smoking. The over-the-counter smoking cessation aids are nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and lozenges.  Nicotine nasal spray, bupropion SR (Zyban) and varenicline (Chantix) are available as prescription.  There are Individual, group and telephone counseling to help with smoking cessation.

Source: American Lung association (www.lung.org/ 2015)

For more information on how you can learn to kick your smoking habit, contact your SIMED physician.