Approximately, 30 percent of all cancer is caused directly by smoking. It is a risk factor for cancers of not only the lung, but also the larynx, the oral cavity, esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, stomach and cervix.
And if that was not enough, 100% of Smokers inevitably end up with either emphysema or chronic bronchitis.
Admittedly, cancer is a rare disease, but 30% of all deaths due to cardiac disease is also directly attributable to smoking. Cardiac disease is the #1 killer in this country.
Children exposed to secondhand smoke in households are more likely to get asthma, chronic respiratory disease, middle ear infections and cardiac disease as adults, . More than a 3rd of all the children who have ever tried even one cigarette will become regular daily smokers before they leave high school.
US spends at least $100 billion every year for health care addressing smoking-related issues in its hospitals and clinics. The state makes payments of over $20 billion in smoking-caused Medicaid payments every year.
It is SO hard for me to sympathize when someone defiantly brings up smoking as an excusable recreational habit instead of feeling guilty about it. I just cannot see their point of view and maybe deep inside, don't want to. It is on par medically with all of the other hard drug addictions, simply because of the massive medical and financial impact it causes. As I write this, some MORON smoking in my building and hanging their cancer-sticks out their window is causing smoke to drift into my living space. You will excuse me if I feel this intense urge to go right up to them, scream in their face and choke them to death.
- Blatant admission: All of this is completely plagiarized from various sources on the net. It is comforting to know that infinitely wiser people have arrived at these various damaging conclusions against smoking and that it is not some personal ill-supported propaganda of mine. Google each sentence on this blog and you will likely find a million peer-reviewed research documents in support.
Hee Hee.
Okay Tiny, so don't smoke.
@(e:metalpeter), I don't think I could have said it better myself. Addiction, and I think this one in particular are very complex. Tobacco use is done at a much more frequent rate than other addictions. Most other addictions could not sustain the frequency of abuse that smoking can for as long a period of time. In other addictions, use at such a high rate would result in either an inability to function normally, lethal overdoses or incarceration. This is, in my belief, the reason why illegal drug addicts have a harder time kicking cigarettes than the street drugs.
@(e:tinypliny), most people who are current smokers that enter a hospital for treatment (smoking related or not) are offered the nicotine patch. When the patient is released they will often remove it, most likely due to liability issues, because they are no longer under medical supervision. When people are released it is also very often a time of relapse for many very legitimate reasons. Smoking with the patch can be particularly dangerous to people who have already experienced some type of health trauma.
I don't believe inpatient smoking cessation is an option for probably 99% of smokers. Can't back that up scientifically but I believe it is an accurate guess. From what I have heard, the only type of treatment that people who are hospitalized for anything that can be linked to smoking is the patch and very rarely is behavioral counseling offered except for maybe a referral to the their state's quit line services.
Just want to add something about the smoking addiction. I think there are a few factors to why it can be so hard to stop and it all comes down to multiple addictions and habits....
Yes there is the Addiction to the chemicals in them. But it is more then just that there is the addiction/habit of smoking. If you are at work you have a pattern and go out side at certain times. That is a habit at those times that you used to smoke what do you do. Hey everyone else is smoking and here you are alone or vice versa when you went out there you got to escape from everyone. Humans are creatures of habit. As an example at work when I work with certain people I right down their Name (PD, RF) but then when they take a day off habit makes me write them in even though my mind knows not to. I think that physical part is a big factor that habit, it is more then just the nicotine. I have heard of people using wooden cigarette or pencils so that they can get used to the feeling of holding them...... It is a very complex issue and what works for one person might not work for another in terms of quiting....
Thanks for writing and adding to the post (e:libertad). It definitely balances the point of view and presents some hard facts about how we, as a medical community and political system are ALSO in a state of denial about the need to take and treat smoking more seriously.
I was not aware that taking off the nicotine patches was something that was forced on patients. I don't think it is a medically sound move because addictions cannot stop that abruptly and come back with even more force if nicotine patches are not slowly graded down. Surely everyone who has the faintest medical knowledge knows this.
Are the patients told that they have to continue treatment as an inpatient if they don't remove their nicotine patches? If they refuse to remove their patches, are they then given inpatient treatment for their addiction? Why is that a bad thing? I am not sure I understand the logic behind this remove-nicotine-patches or we won't let you go threat. What kind of diseases are we talking about? Is this true for all the spectrum of smoking-related hospitalizations? Why would they be still smoking when they enter the hospital if they are wearing the nicotine patch? We are missing something in this picture.
Political will is a non-existent thing. I have NO faith in politicians. They are scum who leech money out of people and go on egotistical trips from the power they have. If politicians and people in power had any intention of doing good, we would be a vastly better planet instead of a planet that is dying and in denial. :/
I think we all do know this information, it would be very hard not to. You mentioned in your comment about the need for the addiction to be treated clinically and it already is. Nicotine addiction is listed in the DSM IV and treated in much the same way as other ailments. Unfortunately, this does not usually go beyond the writing of a script.
While almost any former illegal drug user will tell you that cigarette smoking is the hardest to stop they received more support getting of the street drugs. We offer very little mental health counseling to someone who needs/wants to stop. Please don't assume that people do not know what they are doing to themselves or that they don't really want to quit. Telling someone to quit or telling them they are going to get cancer or COPD is not enough to stop. There often is strong denial which is just a way to cope with their inability to stop. We do not offer inpatient care for smoking cessation which I firmly believe is needed for many seriously dependent individuals.
Do you know how many patients I have spoken to who are hospitalized for smoking related illnesses that are released but only first after they rip the nicotine patch off of their arm? The medical profession is setting these people up to fail at a time when they are most vulnerable. Then *we* look down on them and think of how foolish they are to continue to smoke. How weak and selfish they are to burden everyone else with the costs of their illnesses.
My job can only provide so much help. I can provide up to a half hour of phone counseling for an addiction that starts when people are still children. Many I talk to have been smoking for 40 to 50 years and the only counseling they will ever get is going to be less than 30 minutes on the phone. Often people are humiliated by their addiction and therefore do not ever even get the brief counseling we give over the phone.
So here is the big picture. We have a government that is now dependent on the sale of cigarettes cutting what little help is available in smoking cessation. They will never make cigarettes illegal in our lifetimes. It didn't work with prohibition of alcohol and it isn't going to work on cigarettes. I also believe that they need to stop manipulating the tobacco to make it more addictive. The time to do this is now. This is something that can be done politically unlike making them illegal. We can do this without making them appear safer. It will make it easier to stop and harder to get hooked if they would just regulate the production. The answer is never going to just lie with just one solution.