Smoking Quiz~

Find out if smoking is more harmful at certain ages...if it's ever too late to quit...if quitting now can erase years of damage...and more!

1. If you have smoked for most of your life, it's not worth stopping now.
The correct answer is: False.
Nonsense! You have every reason to quit now and quit for good — even if you've been smoking for years. Stopping smoking will help you live longer and feel better. You will reduce your risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer; improve blood flow and lung function; and help stop diseases like emphysema and bronchitis from getting worse.

2. Older smokers who try to quit are more likely to stay off cigarettes.
The correct answer is: True.
Once they quit, older smokers are far more likely than younger smokers to stay away from cigarettes. Older smokers know more about both the short- and long-term health benefits of quitting.

3. Smokers get tired and short of breath more easily than nonsmokers the same age.
The correct answer is: True
Smokers, especially those over 50 years old, are much more likely to get tired, feel short of breath and cough more often. These symptoms can signal the start of bronchitis or emphysema, both of which are suffered more often by older smokers. These symptoms also can be caused by carbon monoxide in your blood. Stopping smoking will help to reduce these symptoms.

4. Smoking is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke among adults 60 years of age and older.
The correct answer is: True
Smoking is a major risk factor for four of the five leading causes of death including heart disease, stroke, cancer, and lung diseases like emphysema and bronchitis. For adults 60 and over, smoking is a major risk factor for six of the top 14 causes of death. Older male smokers are nearly twice as likely to die of stroke as older men who do not smoke. The odds are nearly as high for older female smokers. Cigarette smokers of any age have a 70-percent greater heart-disease death rate than do nonsmokers.

5. Quitting smoking can help those who already have had a heart attack.
The correct answer is: True
The good news is that stopping smoking does help people who have suffered a heart attack. In fact, their chances of having another attack are smaller. In some cases, ex-smokers can cut their risk of another heart attack by half or more.

6. Most older smokers don't want to stop smoking.
The correct answer is: False
Most smokers would prefer to quit. What keeps them from quitting? There are many excuses — fear of being irritable, nervous and tense; fear of gaining weight. Some of these concerns are very real, but there is help. The one belief that isn’t true — believing that quitting after so many years of smoking will not help. While quitting won’t be easy, it’s never too late.

7. An older smoker is likely to smoke more cigarettes than a younger smoker.
The correct answer is: True
Older smokers usually smoke more cigarettes than younger people. Plus, older smokers are more likely to smoke high-nicotine brands.

8. Someone who has smoked for 30 to 40 years probably won't be able to quit smoking.
The correct answer is: False
You may be surprised to learn that older smokers are actually more likely to succeed at quitting smoking. This is especially true if they're already experiencing long-term, smoking-related symptoms like shortness of breath, coughing, or chest pain. Older smokers who stop want to avoid further health problems, take control of their life, get rid of the smell of cigarettes, and save money.

9. Very few older adults smoke cigarettes.
The correct answer is: False
One out of 12 adults aged 65 or older smokes cigarettes. Since our older adult population is growing, these smokers make up a large part of the country's total of 44.5 million smokers! According to 2004 estimates by the Centers for Disease Control, 20.9 percent of the adult U.S. population still smokes.

10. Lifelong smokers are more likely to die of diseases like emphysema and bronchitis than nonsmokers.
The correct answer is: True
Smoking greatly increases the risk of dying of diseases like emphysema and bronchitis. In fact, over 80 percent of all deaths from these two diseases are directly due to smoking. The risk of dying from lung cancer is also a lot higher for smokers than nonsmokers: 22 times higher for males, 12 times higher for females.

How did you score?

More Reasons to Quit~

What the Heck is COPD Anyway?

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; commonly known as COPD is caused by a simultaneous occurrence of bronchitis and emphysema. I have to admit, I had no idea what COPD stood for. I've heard the commercials for years and got the basic 'gist' of it but really wasn't sure. Something I started to become sure of however, was that whatever it was I was probably getting it!

Emphysema is the result of tiny air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs, becoming overstretched. Their thin walls tear, resulting in loss of lung tissue and elasticity. The lungs cannot expand or contract fully, and so become less efficient.

Bronchitis usually means `chronic bronchitis' which is long term inflammation of the airways, or bronchi. Bronchitis and emphysema are usually caused by inhaled irritants, usually caused by cigarette smoke in 85% of cases, and chemicals and pollutants in the remaining 15%.

Inflammation of the bronchi causes excess production of sputum, which the patient has to cough up, through narrowed damaged airways. As the lungs become increasingly damaged, shortness of breath develops. Moderate exertion such as climbing stairs become a problem, but as the condition worsens so does gasping for air!! For many sufferers, simple tasks such as washing or shaving cause marked shortness of breath, and eventually fighting for breath occurs even at rest.

The condition cannot be cured! However, further deterioration can be prevented by the patient stopping smoking. Difficulty in breathing can be eased by using inhalers or nebulisers. Inhaled steroids like Becotide, are useful in reducing inflammation of the air tubes. Many patients need to have oxygen several times a day.

Recurring chest infections, worsening shortness of breath and wheeziness lead to respiratory failure, where the heart and lungs just `give in' and the patient dies!

Help for bronchitis sufferers:
*Stop smoking, otherwise your condition will deteriorate rapidly.

*Use a peak flow meter. You blow into this gadget to test how `narrowed' your tubes have become. These meters can be obtained on prescription.

*Avoid beta blockers, as these can make bronchitis (and asthma) worse.

*Keep your weight down.

*Avoid dust, fumes and polluted air.

*Get chest infections treated promptly with antibiotics.

*Get vaccinated against `flu' every year before winter.

*Take inhalers and tablets regularly, as instructed by your doctor.

And finally, sufferers with CODP should blow up a balloon 20 times at the end of each day. This has been shown to bring about nearly a 20% improvement, in the patients lung capacity. They also felt better and had less episodes of breathlessness!!

Staying Quit ~

And Sticking With It!
Beating an addiction to nicotine takes a lot of willpower and determination. I should feel GREAT for making it this far -- NINETY (90) DAYS! But now the challenge is simply sticking with it.

Today I as in the boss's office which I have successfully nicknamed The Wood Shed. All I could think about while in there was; "when will this meeting end and when can I go outside and have a cigarette?" Of course I knew I couldn't go out and enjoy a smoke but the thought was still ever present.
Now is not the time to give up, its the time to focus on sticking with it! -- Keep my original plan and develop new strategies as needed. Below are strategies posted by the US Government (who grossly profits from our addictions by-the-way).

Keeping Your Guard Up
Your body has changed since you began to smoke. Your brain has learned to crave nicotine. So certain places, people, or events can trigger a strong urge to smoke, (like the woodshed) even years after quitting. That's why you should never take a puff again, no matter how long it has been since you quit.
At first, you may not be able to do things as well as when you were smoking. Don't worry. This won't last long. Your mind and body just need to get used to being without nicotine.
After you've quit, the urge to smoke often hits at the same times. For many people, the hardest place to resist the urge is at home. And many urges hit when someone else is smoking nearby. Use the skills you've already learned to get through your urges without smoking.

Fighting The Urges
Review the tips from earlier posts to help you fight the urge to smoke. These tips are meant to help you stay a nonsmoker.

Staying Upbeat
Going through the first days and weeks without smoking, keep a positive outlook. Don't blame or punish yourself if you do have a cigarette. (Which I refuse to give in anyway). Don't think of smoking as "all or none." Instead, take it one day at a time. Remember that quitting is a learning process.

Keep Rewarding Yourself For Not Smoking
Now that you aren't buying cigarettes, you probably have more spending money. Take a look at my savings on the bottom of the page for example.
Think about starting a "money jar" if you haven't already. Put your cigarette money aside for each day you don't smoke. Soon you'll have enough money to buy a reward for yourself.

The Dream Police~

Can't Get it Outa My Head ...
It's now been quickly approaching 100 days -- Should be reason for celebration -- And it is. But why can't I stop DREAMING about smoking?

Last night was yet another one. And they are so real. Always very similar... I smoke and then feel guilty as well as disappointed that I broke my string of smoke free days. Feeling like now I have to start counting all over again.

Last night's dream had a twist most dreams do not but reality always does -- After I had smoked about three cigarettes I still had most of the pack left. Of course I was peeved at myself for having caved and disappointed I broke the chain but how was contemplating my dilemma:

Do I finish the pack because I have to start all over anyway?
Oooor -- Do I toss out my 17 or 18 un-smoked but no doubt delectable cigarettes and start the Smoke Free Day Count from that point right then and there?

Of course, the dreaming of enjoying a smoke is not limited to my sleep -- its a daytime event also. During the day, usually at work I can't help the thoughts such as; 'When is this meeting going to end so I can go outside and have a smoke?' -- And church every Sunday, usually during the Priest's Sermon, same thought; "End - Go Smoke".

There are a lot of other times too ... Anytime I am forced to wait somewhere. "When can I get to my car and go have a cig?"The Anxiety continues and those are other times when the desire is strong. It's like the butterflies in my stomach fly up to my chest cavity and float around there like their own personal playground.

For now, I keep walking and I keep not smoking. It is getting easier and when I do hit my 100 day mark it will be my second longest attempt at quitting in a 30 year run -- the last thing I want to do is give in to my dreams.

Cigarette Boxes to Dispaly Pictures of Smoking's Ill Effects

By By Ranit Mishori,

The Washington Post
Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Coming soon to the lives of American smokers: cigarette labels that go far beyond a simple warning.

Imagine gruesome color photographs showing a mouth riddled with cancer, lungs blackened, a foot rotten with gangrene. If the images sound sickening, well, that’s the point.

Under a law signed by President Obama on June 22 — the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act — tobacco companies will be required to cover 50 percent of the front and rear panels of cigarette packages with color graphics showing what happens when you smoke and bold, specific labels saying such things as:

“WARNING: Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease.”
“WARNING: Tobacco smoke can harm your children.”
“WARNING: Smoking can kill you.”

The first U.S.-mandated label in 1965 tentatively suggested “Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health.” Although the language changed over time, critics have long dismissed U.S. labeling as anemic and ineffective.

Indeed, the inspiration for the new labeling standards comes from abroad. Canada started the trend in 2000 with a label that showed a picture of mouth cancer. “It’s the one that smokers remember more than anything else. Even after nine years,” says David Hammond, a researcher from the Department of Health Studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Since then, he says, more than two dozen countries have picked up on the idea.

A sampling of how explicit the labels can be: Malaysia’s cigarette packs bear a photo of a diseased lung; some in Brazil show a dead fetus lying near cigarette butts; Thailand’s show a person with a hole in his throat, to warn about throat cancer; in New Zealand, it’s a gangrenous foot.

Compare these with the American warning label, which has not changed since 1985: no images, and only a small-type surgeon general’s warning that states: “smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth and low birth weight.”

“Every piece of research that I’ve seen with smokers tells us that smokers think that (pictorial warnings) are more effective,” Hammond says. “U.S. smokers and consumers are getting worse health information than almost any other smoker in the world.”

While it is true that smoking rates in the United States are lower than in other countries — about 20 to 22 percent of the adult American population smokes — experts have long argued that a more powerful message would have a far greater impact on smoking habits.

One out of five American adults is still too many smokers, says Mitch Zeller, a former director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Tobacco Programs. “That’s an unacceptable figure. Just because our smoking rate may be lower than other countries around the world is not an argument against graphic warnings when we still have so many people smoking in this country.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 440,000 U.S. deaths are attributed to cigarette smoking every year. That includes deaths from heart disease, lung cancer, obstructive lung disease, other cancers, stroke and other conditions. An estimated 49,000 of these deaths are the result of secondhand-smoke exposure.

“The health effects of smoking are inherently hard and frightening,” Hammond says. “Lung cancer is not a pretty disease. Mouth cancer is not pretty. And any warning that falls short of communicating that probably isn’t doing its job.”

The bigger the warnings are and the more vivid they are, he says, the more they will make people pay attention, “particularly warnings that elicit negative emotions, like fear or disgust.”

The World Health Organization agrees. In May, the organization called for all countries to adopt picture-based warnings on all tobacco packages, calling them “among the strongest defences against the global epidemic of tobacco.” But not everybody agrees that fear and disgust are appropriate buttons to be pushing.

“We are not enthusiastic about any type of graphic image openly displayed in our stores,” says Lyle Beckwith of the Association of Convenience and Petroleum Retailing, a trade group that represents more than 2,000 retailers and their suppliers.

Philip Morris, the country’s largest manufacturer of tobacco products, supported the legislation, which, in addition to requiring stronger warnings, allows regulators to control the amount of addictive nicotine in a cigarette and bans most cigarette flavorings. The rest of the industry opposed the legislation.

Hammond does not think cigarette makers will mount legal battles, because lawsuits in other countries have failed. He said there were such challenges with the earliest graphic labels in Canada, “but the industry lost. ... They challenged the E.U., they lost. They lost everywhere, and I would doubt that they would challenge it” in American courts.

Longtime smoker Karyn Kimberling, president of the smokers’ rights group Virginia Smokers Alliance, sees the coming labels as an attempt to “de-normalize and demonize” smokers and doubts habits would change. “Grotesque labels have not changed people’s habits in other countries,” she says, “so I don’t know why it would here.”

There is, however, research to support claims that graphic warnings educate smokers on the dangers of their habit, and even motivate some to quit. American smokers shown a set of graphic Canadian warning labels, for example, rated them “substantially more of a deterrent than text-only labels” in a CDC-sponsored study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Similarly, an international telephone poll tested several thousand people on their awareness that smoking is linked to heart disease, stroke and lung cancer, among other illnesses. The calls were made in four countries: the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Researchers found higher level of awareness in Canada and Australia, and credit that to the more explicit labels in those countries.

Impotence, for example, is specifically mentioned on Canadians labels, and Canadians polled were twice as likely to agree that smoking can cause impotence as were people from the other three countries.

Hammond keeps pressing the argument that “pictures are more likely to catch people’s attention and to hold people’s attention over time,” especially if the message reaches kids.

“Even the most hardened, recalcitrant smoker will often tell us, ‘Well, they don’t have an effect on me, but my 6-year-old keeps coming up to me and saying, “Daddy, this is going to happen to you?” ’ ” Hammond says. “That does not happen with the text warning.”

Additionally, says Hammond, text warnings don’t work well with those who can’t read — mostly minority populations who don’t have a high level of literacy in English. “For those millions of people, you might as well be writing a health warning in Mandarin if it only has text,” he says. “You put a picture on it and it broadens the scope of those things to millions more people who cannot read English, many of whom are from a lower socioeconomic status and are more likely to smoke anyway.”

The legislation says that the Department of Health and Human Services “shall issue” regulations governing the upgraded labels within two years.

Ranit Mishori is a family physician and faculty member in the Department of Family Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine.
© 2009 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online

Planes, Trains ... Now Automobiles!

Budget, Avis ban smoking in cars

(Another reason it's good that we quit smoking.)

Smoking bans are spreading from planes, trains and buses to another mode of transit: rental cars.

Beginning Oct. 1, Avis and Budget will become the first major rental-car companies to ban smoking in their entire North American fleets and to impose a cleaning fee of up to $250 on customers who smoke in the cars.

"The No. 1 request we get is for a smoke-free car," says John Barrows, spokesman of the Avis Budget Group, the parent company. He says a common customer complaint is a car that smells of smoke, adding, "We're addressing both concerns."

Barrows says employees who drive the vehicles are no longer allowed to smoke and the cars will undergo a new inspection upon return. He says it costs the company more to clean a smoky car, because it often has to be taken out of service longer.

Avis is following a smoke-free travel trend that took off two decades ago. In 1988, Congress banned smoking on short domestic flights and in 1990 expanded that to flights of up to six hours. That year, it also banned smoking on interstate buses.

In 1994, Amtrak banned smoking on short and medium-distance trips and now allows it only in a designated area of the Auto Train, which runs from outside Washington, D.C., to the Orlando area.

Other car-rental companies have taken more limited steps to address smoking. Hertz allows customers to request a smoke-free car but doesn't guarantee it, says spokeswoman Paula Rivera.

Enterpise Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent-a-Car and National Car Rental do not have an "across-the-board" smoking ban but many of their locations restrict smoking, says Laura Bryant, spokeswoman of parent company Enterprise Holdings.

Anti-smoking groups hailed Avis Budget Group's ban. "Avis is protecting the rights of all of its customers to breathe clean air," says Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Secondhand smoke is significantly more concentrated in cars than it is in bars, restaurants and other public places, according to a study released last month by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Phillip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette-maker, believes private business owners "should have the opportunity to make their own smoking policies," says spokesman David Sutton.

"It's disappointing but it's their private property," says Gary Nolan of the Smoker's Club, a part of the Citizens Freedom Alliance, which aims to protect private property rights. Nolan, a smoker, says he used to rent often from Budget, adding, "I won't rent from them again."

Barrows says Avis Budget Group, based on customer research, expects its smoke-free policy will help its bottom line. He says, "We think we may gain more business than we lose."

By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY

Bans on Outdoor Smoking Cross a Line in the Sand

USA TODAY view on cigarettes and public health:

Prohibitions at beaches, parks lack scientific rationale.

Times just keep getting tougher for the American smoker.

As recently as the early 1980s, smoking was considered chic and socially acceptable just about everywhere. Today, smokers are about as welcome in many places as someone with swine flu.

They often seem a forlorn lot, forced to huddle in specially designated areas outside buildings. Smoking bans continue to spread, most recently to rental cars from Budget and Avis.

For the most part, the extension of "No Smoking" rules has been a very good thing. Smoking has declined from 42% of Americans adults in 1965 to just under 20%

in 2007. But the next front in the smoking wars — the great outdoors — is more problematic.

Scores of municipalities have barred smoking in outdoor public places. Now New York

is discussing a ban in its hundreds of parks and 14 miles of beaches. But the rationale that supported earlier bans — to protect non-smokers from the ill effects of secondhand smoke — is missing.

To be harmed by secondhand smoke outdoors, you have to stand right next to the smoker and in the path of his smoke. Prolonged exposure in a park is improbable.

New York's mayor, reformed smoker Michael Bloomberg, who has been laudably aggressive with anti-smoking campaigns, was right to respond hesitantly when his city health commissioner proposed this one.

The nation's change from a smoking to an anti-smoking culture was greatly accelerated by revelations in the mid-1980s that secondhand smoke could be deadly. Smokers could no longer argue they were harming only themselves. Non-smokers' rights became paramount. By that standard, the gradual banning of smoking in confined spaces — airplanes, workplaces and the like — made sense. And if a hotel or car rental chain thinks it's good business to go smoke-free, that's a competitive decision it's entitled to make.

Government-imposed outdoor bans, though, are another matter. Rather than protecting innocent victims from harm, they amount to an intolerant majority infringing the personal freedom of an unpopular minority that is harming only itself. Just as people should be allowed to smoke in their own homes (unless they live in condos or apartments that have declared themselves smoke-free), they should also be allowed to smoke outdoors, where smoke is quickly dissipated and enforcement is problematic. And though some smokers regard beaches as giant ashtrays, that's best dealt with through littering laws, not prohibitions.

From a health standpoint, the fewer people who smoke the better. Some 440,000 die each year from smoking-related illnesses, which is ample reason people should be persuaded not to take up the habit, particularly in their teen years, when nearly all smokers get hooked. Their addiction, however, should not be an excuse for persecution.

It might seem a fine line, but it's an important one, and banning smoking in airy outdoor public places crosses it.

(From the Opinion Page of USA TODAY, September 18, 2009)

Opposing Views: Take Protections Outside ~

Smoking bans in outdoor places protect health and reduce trash.

By Cynthia Hallett

Kudos to New York City for planning to expand its smoke-free indoor air law to include outdoor spaces. Thousands of communities have 100% smoke-free indoor air laws, and many of those now have or are considering laws that expand protections to outdoor places where people gather or work, such as parks, beaches and dining areas.

In fact, 400 U.S. cities and Puerto Rico already have smoke-free parks laws in effect; 82 cities, the state of Maine, and Puerto Rico have smoke-free beach laws. An additional 158 cities and three states (Hawaii, Iowa and Maine) have smoke-free outdoor dining. Smoke-free outdoor spaces are quickly becoming the national norm, and we have the science and public support to continue moving in this direction.

Fueling interest in outdoor laws is the growing body of science on the negative health effects of secondhand smoke exposure outdoors and the environmental effects of cigarettes and toxic cigarette butts. In 2006, the California Air Resources Board classified secondhand smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant and called it "an air pollutant which may cause or contribute to an increase in deaths or in serious illness."Additional research demonstrates that individuals with compromised cardiovascular systems might be at risk from brief exposures to secondhand smoke, even outside. People spending time outdoors near smokers over multiple hours, such as waitresses or dinner guests, can receive exposure that exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency's limit on fine particulate matter pollution.

Cigarette butts are the leading source of pollution in parks and beaches. An estimated 1.69 billion pounds of butts wind up as toxic trash each year. Cigarette filters are made from a plastic that can break into smaller pieces but will never biodegrade or disappear. This substance persists in the environment and is toxic to fish, birds, wildlife and pets, not to mention small children.
We applaud New York City for working to eliminate toxic contaminants and trash from parks and beaches, and expect to see more cities follow suit.

Cynthia Hallett is executive director of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.
Posted September 18, 2009 in USA TODAY editorial

~ The Eleventh Week ~

Hey Look At Me! ~ Seventy Seven Days!
Day 75 was on Wedndsday -- I'm now at the 11 Week Mark!
As of today, that's more than 2200 cigarettes I haven't smoked and
Nearly $500.00 saved!
It's been a long road and I still have anxiety but it is getting better!
Please Let me Know how YOU are doing.

FJW