Second hand smoke kills almost as many people as car accidents....
Today's Post: Thursday, 4-21-2011
In one of the many online news stories about the recent CDC prediction that more and more places will have no smoking laws by 2010, I found a sentence that contains two huge implications.:
“According to the CDC, secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 deaths from heart disease and 3,400 lung cancer deaths among U.S. nonsmoking adults each year.”
Note that 93.12% of these deaths are from heart disease & that total of nearly 50,000 a year is comparable to the number of people killed each year by deaths from car accidents.
Also note that this suggests some of the deaths of smokers are in part from the extra exposure they get to second hand smoke. That makes it quite likely that second hand smoke may kill MORE people currently each year than car accidents!
1. If you dislike the idea of dying in a car wreck, this very forcefully suggests you would also be well advised to avoid ALL tobacco smoke!
Even second hand smoke is likely to kill you as a car accident.
Vote in favor of smoking restrictions if offered the chance. If your local or state legislators are considering the passing of laws to ban smoking in any area you might be in, write or phone them to vote in favor! Print out this post or email it to them if needed to explain why!
Vote in favor of all increase of taxes on cigarettes or tobacco, particularly larger ones, if offered the chance. If your local or state legislators are considering the passing of such laws or enacting such taxes, write or phone them to vote in favor! Print out this post or email it to them if needed to explain why!
(Such taxes have been proven to reduce the number of new, younger smokers; induce some smokers to quit; and cause people who still smoke to smoke less. Each of those will reduce your exposure to second hand smoke.
In addition, their government will increase their revenue without harming anyone in the local economy who doesn’t make money from smoking! And, best of all their area will have lower costs for ambulance and hospitalization and treatment of heart disease and cancers! This is a true triple win for them to do.
In communities that banned smoking almost everywhere, within two years the heart attack rate and ambulance trips for heart attacks went down significantly. This shows that not only does tobacco smoke CAUSE heart disease initially, it TRIGGERS heart attacks in people who might have escaped them otherwise!)
If you are exposed to second hand smoke at your job, either get a job with a better, better informed, employer or see if you can talk your current one into banning smoking in their workplace and helping interested employees who smoke to quit entirely.
If you have friends who smoke, make an effort to phone or email them much more often than you meet in person or only meet them in a place where they can’t smoke.
If you encounter smoke in a public place, escape immediately if there is an OK way to do so.
2. Note that 93.12% of these deaths are from heart disease.
Tell that to every single smoker you know that you care anything about or who is considering quitting smoking or taking it up!
WE now know that tobacco smoke CAUSES heart disease initially; and it TRIGGERS heart attacks in people who might have escaped them otherwise.
We also now know that EVERY single exposure to tobacco smoke begins to cause heart disease which means that even beginning (often young) and light smokers are harmed. AND, it also means that EVERY smoker is harmed every time they are exposed to tobacco smoke. THIS is the most grave and serious health threat from smoking or second hand smoke exposure.
Guess how many smokers know this?
Even among smokers trying to quit, from what I’ve seen, it’s virtually zero!
Smokers have heard that smoking causes lung cancer. But most of them know other smokers who are older who haven’t gotten lung cancer. Then they assume they will be one of the lucky majority who also don’t get it and continue to smoke.
That’s about like not thinking having cobras around is dangerous because you know you can likely avoid tripping over them!
That isn’t the whole truth!
Smokers keep smoking since they assume they will avoid the danger that is rare and have no clue the danger that is vastly more likely to kill them is virtually certain to do so!
If you help get this better known, we will all be better off!
Today's Post: Thursday, 4-21-2011
In one of the many online news stories about the recent CDC prediction that more and more places will have no smoking laws by 2010, I found a sentence that contains two huge implications.:
“According to the CDC, secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 deaths from heart disease and 3,400 lung cancer deaths among U.S. nonsmoking adults each year.”
Note that 93.12% of these deaths are from heart disease & that total of nearly 50,000 a year is comparable to the number of people killed each year by deaths from car accidents.
Also note that this suggests some of the deaths of smokers are in part from the extra exposure they get to second hand smoke. That makes it quite likely that second hand smoke may kill MORE people currently each year than car accidents!
1. If you dislike the idea of dying in a car wreck, this very forcefully suggests you would also be well advised to avoid ALL tobacco smoke!
Even second hand smoke is likely to kill you as a car accident.
Vote in favor of smoking restrictions if offered the chance. If your local or state legislators are considering the passing of laws to ban smoking in any area you might be in, write or phone them to vote in favor! Print out this post or email it to them if needed to explain why!
Vote in favor of all increase of taxes on cigarettes or tobacco, particularly larger ones, if offered the chance. If your local or state legislators are considering the passing of such laws or enacting such taxes, write or phone them to vote in favor! Print out this post or email it to them if needed to explain why!
(Such taxes have been proven to reduce the number of new, younger smokers; induce some smokers to quit; and cause people who still smoke to smoke less. Each of those will reduce your exposure to second hand smoke.
In addition, their government will increase their revenue without harming anyone in the local economy who doesn’t make money from smoking! And, best of all their area will have lower costs for ambulance and hospitalization and treatment of heart disease and cancers! This is a true triple win for them to do.
In communities that banned smoking almost everywhere, within two years the heart attack rate and ambulance trips for heart attacks went down significantly. This shows that not only does tobacco smoke CAUSE heart disease initially, it TRIGGERS heart attacks in people who might have escaped them otherwise!)
If you are exposed to second hand smoke at your job, either get a job with a better, better informed, employer or see if you can talk your current one into banning smoking in their workplace and helping interested employees who smoke to quit entirely.
If you have friends who smoke, make an effort to phone or email them much more often than you meet in person or only meet them in a place where they can’t smoke.
If you encounter smoke in a public place, escape immediately if there is an OK way to do so.
2. Note that 93.12% of these deaths are from heart disease.
Tell that to every single smoker you know that you care anything about or who is considering quitting smoking or taking it up!
WE now know that tobacco smoke CAUSES heart disease initially; and it TRIGGERS heart attacks in people who might have escaped them otherwise.
We also now know that EVERY single exposure to tobacco smoke begins to cause heart disease which means that even beginning (often young) and light smokers are harmed. AND, it also means that EVERY smoker is harmed every time they are exposed to tobacco smoke. THIS is the most grave and serious health threat from smoking or second hand smoke exposure.
Guess how many smokers know this?
Even among smokers trying to quit, from what I’ve seen, it’s virtually zero!
Smokers have heard that smoking causes lung cancer. But most of them know other smokers who are older who haven’t gotten lung cancer. Then they assume they will be one of the lucky majority who also don’t get it and continue to smoke.
That’s about like not thinking having cobras around is dangerous because you know you can likely avoid tripping over them!
That isn’t the whole truth!
Smokers keep smoking since they assume they will avoid the danger that is rare and have no clue the danger that is vastly more likely to kill them is virtually certain to do so!
If you help get this better known, we will all be better off!
Labels: new help for people trying to quit smoking, Second hand smoke kills almost as many people as car accidents, smoking causes heart attacks, smoking cessation, why smoking bans save lives and money
posted by David at 2:36 PM
1 Comments:
In the online health news today in an article about a new emphasis on prevention by the American Heart Association, I found this strong quote supporting quick savings for emergency response for heart attacks when smoking bans begin.:
Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, chairman of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine said this:
"The data are unequivocal.... Hospitalization rates for heart attacks drop dramatically within months of the institution of an indoor smoking ban."
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