Material Fact Sheet

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SMOKING
Advice From Surgeon General’s Reports on Smoking and Health

QUITTING WILL SAVE LIVES AND IMPROVE HEALTH
Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the
United States. Recent studies show that smokers who talk to a clinician about
how to quit dramatically increase their chances of quitting successfully. Quitting
smoking is the most important step you can take to improve your health. Your
doctor can help you quit.

TIPS FOR QUITTING
If you are a smoker who wants to quit:
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Set
a quit date, ideally within two weeks.

Remove
tobacco products from your home, car, and workplace.

Resolve
not to smoke at all—not even one puff.

Avoid
drinking while you’re quitting cigarettes. Drinking alcohol can trigger
cravings for a cigarette.

Anticipate
challenges, such as nicotine withdrawal, particularly during the
critical first few weeks.

Ask
others not to smoke around you. Allowing them to smoke around you
can make it harder for you to quit.

Identify
reasons for quitting and benefits of quitting.

Medication and counseling help smokers quit:
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Physicians
can recommend counseling or coaching in combination with
over-the-counter nicotine patches, gum, or lozenges or with FDA-approved
medications, unless there are other health concerns about those medications.
 edication and counseling in combination result in much higher quit rates
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than medication alone.

Counseling
and coaching are available through community, employer, insurance,
and hospital/medical practice cessation programs or through quitline services
(1-800-QUIT-NOW).

YOU
CAN QUIT

AND YOUR HEALTH
CARE PROVIDER
CAN HELP

Resources to help smokers quit:
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Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669),
the national access number to
state-based quitline services.
Go to www.smokefree.gov, www.cdc.gov/
tips and www.ahrq.gov/path/tobacco.htm
for free materials.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS FROM
SURGEON GENERAL’S REPORTS ON
SMOKING AND HEALTH
1. There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke.
Any exposure to tobacco smoke—even an occasional
cigarette or exposure to secondhand smoke—is
harmful.
2. Damage from tobacco smoke is immediate. Tobacco
smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals and
chemical compounds that reach your lungs every time
you inhale. Your blood then carries the poisons to all
parts of your body. These poisons damage DNA, which
can lead to cancer; damage blood vessels and cause
clotting, which can cause heart attacks and strokes; and
damage the lungs, which can cause asthma attacks,
emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.
3. Smoking longer means more damage. Both the risk and
the severity of many diseases caused by smoking are
directly related to how long the smoker has smoked and
the number of cigarettes smoked per day.
4. Cigarettes are designed for addiction. The design
and contents of tobacco products make them more
attractive and addictive than ever before. Nicotine
addiction keeps people smoking even when they
want to quit.
5. Even low levels of exposure, including exposure to
secondhand tobacco smoke, are dangerous. You don’t
have to be a heavy smoker or a long-time smoker to
get a smoking-related disease or have a heart attack or
stroke triggered by smoke.
6.  There is no safe cigarette.

HOW SMOKING HARMS YOUR HEALTH
HEART DISEASE

CANCER

Smoking causes dangerous plaque
buildup that can clog and narrow your
arteries. Poisons from tobacco smoke
also quickly damage blood vessels
and make blood more likely to clot.
This can block blood flow and lead to
heart attack, stroke, or sudden death.
Even exposure to secondhand smoke
can trigger a heart attack or stroke in
nonsmokers.

Tobacco smoke contains toxic
chemicals that can damage your DNA
and lead to cancer. One out of every
three cancer deaths in this country is
from smoking. Continuing to smoke
weakens the cancer-fighting systems
of your body. Smoking also can
interfere with your cancer treatment.
Cancer patients and survivors who
continue to smoke are more likely to die from their original cancer, a
secondary cancer, or other causes than are cancer patients and survivors
who are former smokers or who have never smoked.

Quitting smoking will improve your heart health. After just one year, your
risk for a heart attack drops sharply. Even if you’ve already had a heart
attack, you cut your risk of having another one by a third to a half if you
quit smoking. Two to five years after you quit, your risk for stroke falls to
about the same as a nonsmoker’s.

DIABETES
Smoking is a cause of type 2 diabetes.
If you have diabetes and smoke, your
risk for kidney disease is two to three
times higher than if you don’t smoke.
Smokers with diabetes also have
higher risk for heart disease; eye
disease that can cause blindness;
nerve damage that leads to
numbness, pain, weakness, and poor circulation; and amputations.
Smokers who have diabetes also have more difficulty recovering from surgery.
After you quit smoking, you will have better control over your blood sugar
levels. When you quit, you will be less likely to have heart or kidney disease,
blindness, or amputations.

Most people find a combination of resources works best.
Many smokers do not quit on their first attempt. Many need
several tries to successfully quit. But the benefits are well
worth it. Keep trying.

FERTILITY AND
PREGNANCY
Smoking reduces a woman’s chance
of getting pregnant and damages
DNA in sperm. Damage to sperm
could decrease fertility and lead to
miscarriage or birth defects. Men
who smoke are more likely to have
erectile dysfunction, which can affect
reproduction. Women who smoke during pregnancy have a higher risk for
ectopic pregnancy, delivering their babies early, and stillbirth. Those who
smoke during early pregnancy are more likely to have babies born with
a cleft lip or palate. Babies whose mothers smoke during pregnancy
are more likely to have low birth weight or to die from sudden infant
death syndrome (SIDS). Tobacco smoke also damages the tissues of the
unborn baby’s growing brain and lungs and could interfere with the
growth of the placenta, the organ that feeds the baby in the womb.
This could lead to miscarriage, premature delivery, or low birth weight.

RESOURCES
FOR
QUITTING

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Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

www.smokefree.gov
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