In honour of World No Tobacco Day (on May 31st), we thought it would be appropriate to base our discussion around the topic of tobacco and lung health. Smoking cigarettes is said to be the number one cause of preventable deaths in North America. As well, smoking tobacco and being exposed to secondhand smoke significantly increases the risk of developing a range of diseases. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer related deaths and second hand smoke can increase the risk of developing lung cancer in non smokers too. Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke have an increased chance of developing respiratory infections, asthma, pneumonia and bronchitis. Smoking also aggravates asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases. There is also a well established link between smoking tobacco and tuberculosis, which can be triggered even at a latent stage by smoking.
Quitting smoking can increase your lifespan by decreasing the risk of developing lung cancer by half over 10 years and lowering the risk of developing smoke related diseases. It is estimated that if nobody smoked, one of three cancer related deaths would not occur. After just one year of giving up smoking, the risk of a heart attack significantly drops. The health related benefits of quitting smoking continue to increase with each subsequent year of quitting. Therefore, it is crucial to understand that it is never too late to quit smoking and you can reap the benefits of quitting smoking at any stage.
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