healtydailymail.com Cigarette smoking is the greatest single cause of illness and premature death in the UK. This leaflet gives reasons why smoking is so harmful. It also lists the benefits of stopping, and where to go for help.
- This leaflet is part of our series on smoking
- Smoking - How Addicted Are You?
- Smoking and Others (Passive Smoking)
- Pregnancy and Smoking
- The Benefits of Stopping Smoking
- Tips To Help You Stop Smoking
- Bupropion (Zyban®)
- Varenicline (Champix®)
- Nicotine Replacement Therapy
- Some initial facts and figures
- About 100,000 people in the UK die each year due to smoking. Smoking-related deaths are mainly due to cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease.
About half of all smokers die from smoking-related diseases. If you are a long-term smoker, on average, your life expectancy is about 10 years less than a non-smoker. Put another way, in the UK about 8 in 10 non-smokers live past the age of 70, but only about half of long-term smokers live past 70. The younger you are when you start smoking, the more likely you are to smoke for longer and to die early from smoking.
Many smoking-related deaths are not quick deaths. For example, if you develop COPD you can expect several years of illness and distressing symptoms before you die.
Smoking increases the risk of developing a number of other diseases (listed below). Many of these may not be fatal, but they can cause years of unpleasant symptoms.
The good news is:
Stopping smoking can make a big difference to your health. It is never too late to stop smoking to greatly benefit your health. For example, if you stop smoking in middle age, before having cancer or some other serious disease, you avoid most of the increased risk of death due to smoking.
Many people have given up smoking. In 1972 just under half of adults in the UK were smokers. By 1990 this had fallen to just under a third. At present, about a sixth of UK adults are smokers.
Help is available if you want to stop smoking but are finding it difficult.
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