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Smoking kills more than 18 000 Australians a year. One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit.* |
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Smoking is responsible for 30% of all cancers and 25% of heart disease and costs $12.7 billion a year in health care and other related costs.** |
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Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemicals, at least 43 of which are known to cause cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, lung, pancreas, stomach, kidney, cervix, vulva, penis, bladder and anus.* |
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Nicotine is the addictive drug in tobacco. The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels. This can cause heart attacks and stroke. It also slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands. Some smokers end up having their limbs amputated.* |
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Tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. A person who smokes 20 cigarettes a day breathes in up to 150ml of tar in a year.* |
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Carbon monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your whole body - especially your heart - work harder. Over time, your airways narrow and let less air into your lungs.* |
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The strain put on your body by smoking often causes years of suffering. |
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Emphysema is an illness that slowly rots your lungs. People with emphysema often get bronchitis again and again, and suffer lung and heart failure. |
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Lung cancer is caused by the tar in tobacco smoke. Men and women who smoke are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers. |
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Heart disease and strokes are also more common among smokers than non-smokers. Smoking causes fatty deposits which narrow and block blood vessels leading to heart attack and stroke. Smoking causes around one in five deaths from heart disease. In younger people, three out of four deaths from heart disease are due to smoking. |
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Moreover, there's money to consider. In a way, giving up smoking is like getting a pay rise, as much as $3000* a year if you smoke 25 cigarettes a day. (*includes GST) |
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