February 5, 2008

6 Reasons To Put Out Your Cigarette

Nicotine is a drug that is ranked with heroine in terms of its addictiveness. By smoking substances like tobacco, the chemicals released in a gas form in the smoke are easily absorbed through delicate lung tissue and into the blood stream. The nicotine actually alters the chemistry in the brain within seconds of the first inhalation, causing a temporary euphoric sensation. Part of this feeling may be attributed to the fact that the carbon monoxide in smoke impairs the bloods ability to carry oxygen to vital organs such as the heart and brain.

take two cigarettes and call me in the morning

Smokers are in a constant state of oxygen deprivation because of the high amounts of carbon monoxide in their blood (4 to 15 times more than nonsmokers). The average cigarette has more than 600 times the concentration that is considered safe in industrial plants, where carbon monoxide poisoning is a constant danger.

A sobering experiment for smokers:

Take a puff of smoke and hold it in your mouth. Do not inhale it into your lungs. Take a white handkerchief and hold it up to your mouth. Exhale the smoke through the material of the handkerchief and you will be able to see the tar that is usually deposited in your lungs with every inhalation of cigarette smoke.

Nicotine has historically been one of the toughest addictions to break, but the payoff is worth the effort.

6 Reasons to Put Out Your Cigarette:

Each cigarette costs the smoker 5 to 25 minutes of life.
The risk of lung cancer increases 50% to 100% with every cigarette that a person smokes per day.
The risk of Heart Disease increases 50% with every pack of cigarettes a person smokes per day.
Smoking filter tipped cigarettes cuts the risk of lung cancer by up to 20%, but still does not eliminate the danger involved.
People who smoke spend 27% more time in hospitals and nearly 2 times the amount of time spend in intensive care units than nonsmokers.
A smoker is at twice the risk of dying before age sixty-five as a nonsmoker.

a filter in the rough

Studies show that all of the negative impacts of active smoking are experienced by nonsmokers who live with smokers or are exposed to “secondhand” tobacco smoke. Even though they themselves may have never smoked a cigarette, their life and health will suffer just as if they were smokers.

If you live with smoking family members, encourage them to smoke outdoors.

If a family member insists on smoking indoors, set up a room as a “smoking room”. Close off all return vents in the room, crack a window in the room and run an air purifier like the home Smoke Eater.
Do not smoke or allow family members to smoke if children are present (particularly infants and toddlers, who are especially susceptible to the effects of tobacco smoke). Sometimes smoking family members may be belligerent of such a rule—but smoke in regards to children is a life or death situation. You would not let your child play with a gun because of the potential danger of it firing—why you would feel any differently about secondhand smoke, which is statistically much more dangerous?
Do not allow babysitters or other people who work in your home to smoke indoors.
For families with multiple smokers, you might want to consider installing a small commercial smoke eater like My Air Purifier's Smoke Removal System 800. The results will be much better than those from residential smoking filters and the price difference is nominal. The power and ability to clean the air between the residential and commercial filters is dramatic, so if more than 1 or 2 packs are smoked indoors per day, a wise choise would be a commercial grade filter.

Most importantly, set your sights on quitting—and encourage your friends and family members to quit as well, so that you can spend a long and happy life together!

Visit Determined to Quit's website and start the fight to live smoke-free.

Filed under Commercial, Smoke Removal, Air Quality by Dan Buglio