Quitting smoking will save you money
Smoking is not only bad for your health – it’s expensive. Most New Zealanders who smoke tobacco, smoke more than half a pack of cigarettes each day. If they quit smoking, they would save at least $40 a week, or $160 a month.
Most New Zealanders feel that the economic recession is having an impact on their financial situation. Given that smokers experience more financial stress than non-smokers and ex-smokers, now is a great time to give quitting a go.
Kids do what you do
Some parents underestimate the level of influence they have over their children's decisions around smoking. Parents' smoking and their attitudes about smoking are key influences in predicting whether children and young people will start and continue to smoke. New Zealand research shows students who had at least one parent who smoked were three times more likely to be daily smokers, compared with those whose parents did not smoke.
Patches and gum are safe and double your chances of quitting
Many smokers believe that nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) such as nicotine patches, gum and lozenges is ineffective as an aid to quitting smoking and that it is unsafe to use. However, using NRT helps to quit smoking. Research shows that NRT doubles your chance of quitting successfully.
NRT is safe to use and there is no evidence that it causes cancer or other smoking-related diseases. Using NRT is considered much safer than continuing to smoke tobacco and the Ministry of Health considers NRT as a safer alternative than continuing to smoke for pregnant women.
Rollies are not a safer smoke
Some smokers believe that smoking roll-your-own tobacco is safer compared with smoking tailor-made cigarettes and around one-half of New Zealand smokers smoke mostly roll-your-own tobacco. However, roll-your-own tobacco has more nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide than tailor-made cigarettes. In two studies it was found that smokers of roll-your-own cigarettes are more at risk of developing a range of cancers compared with smokers of tailor-made cigarettes.
Hot off the press - new New Zealand study shows how toxic rollies are.
Smoking robs your loved ones of 15 years of your life
It is estimated that people who die of a smoking-related disease lose, on average, 15 years of life.
New Zealanders who die of a smoking-related disease in middle age lose an average of 23 years of life.
One in two smokers will die from smoking
‘Tobacco is the only consumer product that will kill half its users when used as intended.’
One in two long-term smokers, who do not quit smoking, will die early from a smoking-related illness. Smokers are twice as likely than non-smokers to die when they are in middle age.
Single leading cause of preventable death
Smoking is worse than you think!
In New Zealand, and internationally, tobacco is the single leading cause of preventable death.
Smoking kills 5,000 New Zealanders every year
Around one-third of New Zealanders believe that the dangers of smoking have been exaggerated, yet tobacco is the single biggest cause of preventable death in New Zealand with around 5,000 New Zealanders dying each year as a result of smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke.
Between 4,300 and 4,700 New Zealanders die each year from a smoking-related illness. When the deaths caused by exposure to second-hand smoke are included this estimate increases to around 5,000 deaths per year.
Second-hand smoke
Second-hand smoke is poisonous; it causes death and disease, killing around 350 New Zealanders every year. That’s one non-smoker a day dying as a result of exposure to second-hand smoke.
The toxins, including cancer-causing chemicals, in sidestream smoke (smoke from the burning end of a cigarette) are more highly concentrated than those in smoke exhaled by a smoker. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of second-hand smoke, which include asthma and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Children are also often not in a position to move away from second-hand smoke.
All cigarettes are deadly
Many people believe that smoking tobacco with descriptors such as ‘light’ and ‘mild’ is less harmful to health compared with smoking regular tobacco. However, 'light' and 'mild' cigarettes are not safer to smoke. The tar and nicotine content of ‘light’ cigarettes is comparable to regular cigarettes and ‘light’ cigarettes may deliver more carbon monoxide than regular cigarettes.
The terms ‘light’ and ‘mild’ are being phased out in New Zealand as a result of a Commerce Commission warning in September 2008. In other countries where this has happened, the tobacco industry has replaced light and mild with other descriptions. These are just as misleading. For example, a ‘smooth’ cigarette is as poisonous as any other cigarette.
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