Quit Smoking

Smoking cigarettes or cigars can cause many health problems, including cancer, emphysema, and periodontal disease. It can also stain your teeth and hands, leave an unpleasant odor on your breath, hair, and clothing, and further complicate things by making you stand outside offices, restaurants, and bars to smoke.

As of March, 2010, many states in the U.S. have banned smoking in public places. 37 states have banned smoking in at least bars, restaurants or workplaces, and most of those states have forbid smoking in all of these public places.http://wapedia.mobi/en/List_of_smoking_bans_in_the_United_StatesStudies have shown that smoking bans in both the U.S. and European countries decrease the number of cigarettes a person smokes, and has actually resulted in some people quitting the habit.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15610995

Smoking is not only harmful to the smoker, but also to those nearby. Second hand smoke can be defined as the involuntary inhaling of cigarette or cigar smoke by someone who is not physically smoking. This happens when a person is in the same room with others who are smoking. The smoke coming out of the burning end of the cigarette or cigar travels into the air and then into a non-smoker's lungs when they inhale.http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=13423

Second hand smoke has been shown in studies to be especially harmful to children. The EPA has classified second hand smoke as a known cause of cancer. Second hand smoke contains hundreds of carcinogenic or toxic chemicals. 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 heart disease deaths have been caused by second hand smoke in the United States each year.http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ped/content/ped_10_2x_secondhand_smoke-clean_indoor_air.asp

By quitting smoking, the above hazards, as well as others, can be avoided. This page has links to information on quitting smoking. For further information, check out the Mahalo page, How to quit smoking, which offers step-by-step guidelines.

Some acceptable and common ways that people have used to successfully quit smoking include nicotine patches, nicotine gum, e-cigarettes and hypnosis.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/health/10-ways-to-quit-smoking/articleshow/5984612.cmsSome people are able to quit cold-turkey, which means they stop smoking without the additional help of patches or gum. This can be done, but doesn't always work for everyone.

The content in this page is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please contact your doctor about a smoking cessation program that is right for you.