Tobacco

Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States. Each year, an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million have a serious illness caused by smoking. Despite these risks, approximately 46 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes. Smokeless tobacco, cigars, and pipes also have deadly consequences, including lung, larynx, esophageal, and oral cancers.

The harmful effects of smoking do not end with the smoker. More than 126 million nonsmoking Americans, including children and adults, are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. Even brief exposure can be dangerous because nonsmokers inhale many of the same carcinogens and toxins in cigarette smoke as smokers.

Secondhand smoke exposure causes serious disease and death, including heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and more frequent and severe asthma attacks in children. Each year, primarily because of exposure to secondhand smoke, an estimated 3,000 nonsmoking Americans die of lung cancer, more than 46,000 die of heart disease, and about 150,000–300,000 children younger than 18 months have lower respiratory tract infections.

Coupled with this enormous health toll is the significant economic burden of tobacco use—more than $96 billion per year in medical expenditures and another $97 billion per year resulting from lost productivity. (U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health, 2010)

Quitting Tobacco Use

Why Quit?

There are several reasons to quit using tobacco as well as several benefits for your health. The benefits of quitting begin immediately. You’ll experience the benefits of not using tobacco within 20 minutes of quitting, and as your tobacco-free days accumulate, the benefits will accumulate, too. Quitting tobacco will improve your health, your finances, your self-esteem and your everyday life – immediately and over the long term – in ways you may never have imagined.

Components of a Quit Plan

• Review your own smoking behavior
• Identify your own motivators for quitting
• Make a list of social supports
• Prepare to taper
• Set a quit date
• Prepare your environment
• Identify specific triggers and strategies to lessen or avoid them
• Identify your biggest concerns
• Manage urges and use of alternatives
• Discuss use of the 4 D's: Deep breath, Drink water, Delay, Do something else.
• Identify relapse prevention strategies and plan for them.
• Plan strategies for dealing with weight gain.
  (Center for Tobacco Independence, 2006)

Quit Tips

• Call the Maine Tobacco Helpline!
• Don't quit quitting. If you slip up, try again and again until you are successful.
• Pick a quit date. Don't smoke on that day no matter what happens.
• Ask a family member or friend to help you through those moments when you feel like smoking.
• Be sure to get rid of all your smoking materials, such as cigarettes, ashtrays, and lighters before your quit date.
• If you're making another attemp to quit smoking, think about what didn't work before. Develop a plan that will help you make your attempt more successful this time
• Make a list of all your reasons for quitting. When you feel the urge to smoke, take out the list and read it.
• Put the money you would spend each day on cigarettes in a piggy bank. Use it to reward yourself for staying smoke-free.
• Go to places where you know you will not be allowed to smoke, like the mall, the movie theater or the library.
• Stay busy. Garden, write a letter or start that project you've been meaning to get to.
• Remember that the urge to smoke will go away in just a few minutes. You can make it through!
  (Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine)