Stopping smoking isn’t easy, but greatly improves your health and finances. Smoking causes extensive damage to your body and your second hand smoke can also cause problems for everybody else too. Smoking is unattractive and costs you loads of money.
Just imagine your smoke free future – feeling great and having that extra money in your pocket.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is usually caused by a build-up of fatty deposits on the walls of the arteries around the heart (coronary arteries).
The fatty deposits, called atheroma, are made up of cholesterol and other waste substances.
The build-up of atheroma on the walls of the coronary arteries makes the arteries narrower and restricts the flow of blood to the heart. This process is called atherosclerosis. Your risk of developing atherosclerosis is significantly increased if you smoke.
Smoking is the main cause of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). COPD is the name for a collection of lung diseases including chronic bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive airways disease.
At least 4 out of 5 people who develop the disease are, or have been, smokers. The lining of the airways becomes inflamed and permanently damaged by smoking. This damage cannot be reversed. Around 10-25% of smokers develop COPD.
In Camden and Islington, 9 out of 10 people diagnosed with COPD are smokers or former smokers.
If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, you will need to pay special attention to certain aspects of your lifestyle and health.
Diabetes doesn’t have to stop you from leading the life you want. Nor does it mean you’ll necessarily have other serious health problems in the future. If you do smoke, find support to help you stop. Smoking increases your risk of heart disease and stroke even further.
The water does not filter out harmful chemicals.
The smoke you inhale from the shisha pipe contains high levels of toxic chemicals that cause cancer. Breathing in the second-hand smoke is also harmful, particularly to children and pregnant women.
The flavourings and sweeteners only disguise the harmful ingredients in tobacco.
Smoking shisha can cause irreversible lung damage and fatal lung diseases like lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It may also lead to losing teeth from gum disease.
The water cools the smoke making it less irritating, but not less harmful.
Because smoke is cooler you may inhale it more deeply into your lungs, along with high levels of carbon monoxide (the stuff that comes out of car exhausts) and other chemicals that cause cancer.
Like cigarettes, shisha tobacco contains nicotine, which is addictive.
Regular shisha smokers can become dependent and have withdrawal symptoms when they try to quit.
Shisha tobacco produces tar.
Most shisha tobacco packaging says 0% tar but this is misleading. When tobacco in any form is heated, it produces tar which can seriously damage your lungs.
Sharing a waterpipe without changing the mouthpiece can make you ill.
You may catch infectious illnesses like oral herpes, colds and flu, and more serious illness like tuberculosis.
It is illegal to smoke inside a shisha bar.
Shisha smoking is covered by the smoking ban. If you smoke in an enclosed public space (for example inside a shisha café), you are breaking the law and you may be fined.
Many studies show that secondhand smoking and tobacco exposure increases health risks to your pets and has been associated with:
20 minutes
Blood pressure and pulse rate return to normal.
24 hours
Carbon monoxide is eliminated from the body. Lungs start to clear out mucus and other smoking debris.
72 hours
Breathing becomes easier. Bronchial tubes begin to relax and energy levels increase.
3 - 9 months
Coughs, wheezing and breathing problems improve as lung function increases by up to 10%.
10 years
Risk of lung cancer falls to half that of a smoker. Risk of heart attack falls to the same as one who has never smoked.
8 hours
Nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in blood reduce by half, oxygen levels return to normal.
48 hours
There is no nicotine in your body. Ability to smell and taste is greatly improved.
2 - 12 weeks
Your circulation improves.
5 years
Risk of heart attack falls to about half compared to a person who is still smoking.
20 minutes
Blood pressure and pulse rate return to normal.
8 hours
Nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in blood reduce by half, oxygen levels return to normal.
24 hours
Carbon monoxide is eliminated from the body. Lungs start to clear out mucus and other smoking debris.
48 hours
There is no nicotine in your body. Ability to smell and taste is greatly improved.
72 hours
Breathing becomes easier. Bronchial tubes begin to relax and energy levels increase.
2 - 12 weeks
Your circulation improves.
3 - 9 months
Coughs, wheezing and breathing problems improve as lung function increases by up to 10%.
5 years
Risk of heart attack falls to about half compared to a person who is still smoking.
10 years
Risk of lung cancer falls to half that of a smoker. Risk of heart attack falls to the same as one who has never smoked.
Answer the two questions below and then click “Calculate” to see how much money you could save!
Please note that the figures above are simply an indication of much you could save based on the cost of a packet of cigarettes and your daily intake.
