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Encouraging smokers to stop: what you can do

Why it is worth stopping

Stopping smoking has immediate benefits for men and women of all ages‚ irrespective of whether they already have a smoking-related disease.

• In 20 minutes blood pressure and pulse rate return to normal.
  
• In 20 hours carbon monoxide will be eliminated from the body.
  
• In 3 days breathing becomes easier — the bronchial tubes begin to relax.
  
• In 3 months circulation improves.
  
• In 3 to 9 months lung function improves by about 10%.
  
• In 1 year the risk of a heart attack falls to about half that of a smoker.
  
• Long-term stopping smoking reduces the risk of lung cancer‚ heart disease‚ strokes‚ chronic lung disease and other cancers.
  
• The risk of serious disease starts going down immediately.

• This diagramshows the benefit to your lungs if you stop smoking ⁽⁹⁾.
  
• Although the measure in the diagram is FEV1 ‚ it’s real value is to illustrate to the smoker visually the benefit of stopping.
  
• Lung function gets worse as you get older‚ but normally only very slowly and very slightly ( Non-smoker line).
  
• In smokers lung function can get worse much more quickly. For example‚ the diagram shows a smoker who becomes disabled with emphysema at 56 ( Smoker line).
  
• If you stop smoking you delay the damage to your health‚ and if you stop soon enough there will be no damage ( Stopped at 45 line).

These data are from: Fletcher D‚ Peto R (1977). The natural history of chronic airflow obstruction. BMJ 1:1645-48. The text under the diagram is approved by Professor Richard Peto.