Washington – Tobacco use will kill 6 million people next year from cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a range of other ills, the American Cancer Society said in a report issued on Tuesday.
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The society’s new Tobacco Atlas estimates that tobacco use costs the global economy $500 billion a year in direct medical expenses, lost productivity and environmental harm.
“Tobacco’s total economic costs reduce national wealth in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 3.6 percent,” the report reads.
“Tobacco accounts for one out of every 10 deaths worldwide and will claim 5.5 million lives this year alone,” the report said. If current trends hold, by 2020, the number will grown to an estimated 7 million and top 8 million by 2030.
Over the past four decades, smoking rates have declined in rich countries like the United States, Britain and Japan while rising in much of the developing world, according to the nonprofit research and advocacy organization.
Some other findings from the report, available:
How can I quit smoking?
#1 & how can I make my husband quit. I am sick of it.
Try not stressing out your hubby.
Raise the tax to $10 a pack
Nos. 1 and 2: Try the nicorette gum or lozenges. It has helped many. Some people also have found hypnosis helpful. Good luck and keep trying.
Chill out everybody, look around you… More Non-smokers dies each year than smokers. Why should we quit smoking?? Why not smoke? I get ’em for $3.00 a pack.
Cancer, heart disease are also caused from Radiation. Due to bomb testing and Nuclear power plants the US and many other countries have been contaminated.
Not just smoking causes these things. Pollution also caused Cancer. Emphysema is also caused by numerous Chemicals. Janitors for example have been in many cases exposed to cleaning chemicals which caused them to get Emphysema. I have worked with patients of this sort many times. Smoking is bad for you no one can deny that but there are many many other causes some of which are much more devastating. Drinking can also cause cancer and heart problems among other numerous illnesses. Maybe we should ban alcohol as well.
6 Million to die form smoking and they are want to medicate all Americans for Swine flue where less than One Hundred people died so far.
Absurd!
Boruch Hashem, we just celebrated a one year anniversary that my husband stopped smoking after 40 years. It was more than a pack a day that he did. No he never had a problem on such as Shabbos but yes it was psychological, as soon as Shabbos was over there he was smoking again.
He call the NY quits who provided him with the patches free. He did the patches for 10 days and when was supposed to go to the next level he figured to try to do without it and Boruch Hashem it’s history.
Yes, everything around a smoker smells.
Not everyone who smokes gets sick but he/she makes others near him sick.
I used to tell my husband that as a wife it’s my obligation to be by his side if sick but for S.I.B. (self injuring behavior) i will not.
Last year he developed a bad cough, our neighbors downstairs could hear it.
I would tell him, “now you could use a good suctioning”. Being we are exposed and know what suctioning is…perhaps that shook him up.
If you have a Rav or Rosh Yeshiva that your husband respects, go and speak up and say exactly how you are affected by the smoking. Perhaps that will push him to stop.
As a physician I can say:
Cigarette smoking is one of the biggest causes of damage to our bodies and of death, and it is readily preventable. Those of us who smoke are willfully damaging our bodies for pleasure!
Many current authorities in Jewish law urge people not to start smoking, and to stop if at all possible. I am personally aware of leading rabbis in Israel who will not permit their children to date anyone who smokes cigarettes.
Nicotine is more addictive than heroin, according to some studies.
It works by triggering pleasure centers in the brain. The rush of the ‘high’ is soon followed by a drop-off. This is similar to the action of cocaine.
Quickly, physical addiction sets in, often after even the 1st or 2nd cigarette.
Smokers do not just damage themselves. They are also choveil ba’chaveiro, in many cases, especially for family members!
Secondary risks:
For those who are exposed to cigarette smoke from smokers, and from the fumes on their clothing, etc, there are risks as well. There is, for example, an elevated risk for lung cancer in the wives of smokers, and for asthma in children of smokers.
As for those who stop, there remain elevated risks for certain cancers, but almost immediately there is a dramatic drop-off in risks of further damage to one’s cardiovascular and pulmonary systems.
It is sad that some would make cynical and sarcastic remarks here, rather than encouraging one another to kick the habit, for one’s own sake, and for the sake of one’s loved ones, especially during the month of Ellul.
If someone smokes and continues to smoke, for years, the risk of dying prematurely is at least 1 in 3!
We pray during Rosh HaShanah for a new lease on life.
Why not show we mean it, by stopping to smoke?!
A good time to stop would be before Rosh HaShanah.
Why rely on the ‘heitero of Rav Moshe, from decades ago, to continue to smoke (which some authorities now disagree with, based on information from the past 40 years)? Why rely on the ‘heiter’ to smoke on yom tov, ie on the 2nd day of Rosh HaShanah of on Sukkos? Why not just say no to tobacco? There are at least 7 days wherein cigarette smoking is halachically forebidden or problematic coming up in the next few weeks. Why not time your decision to quit so as to do so before these 7 days arrive?
The money saved from cigarettes can be put to much better use. Why give these corporations thousands of dollars per smoker, per year?
Our institutions should have a zero tolerance policy for smoking.
Okay, now I am sure the sarcastic anonymous comments will commence, but I write this because there are studies that just hearing ‘tochacha’ from one’s physician results in 10% of people stopping to smoke.
If even only one person stops smoking as a result of this article or this post, it will be worth it!