Avoid a smoking habit

Many smokers say they started smoking before the age of 16, even though the law prevents anyone selling tobacco, cigarettes or cigarette papers to those under this age. Avoiding the temptation to smoke at an early age is therefore important to prevent you developing a habit.

Reasons to quit smoking

People give up smoking for many reasons, from a desire to improve their health and to save money, to wanting to appeal to the opposite sex or reduce any potential harm on someone else’s health.

Improving your health

In the UK one person dies from a smoking-related disease every four minutes. Smoking causes:

lung cancer (smoking causes over 80 per cent of all lung cancer deaths)
heart disease
bronchitis
strokes
stomach ulcers
leukaemia
gangrene
other cancers eg mouth and throat cancer

It can also worsen colds, chest problems and allergies like hay fever, bronchitis and emphysema, as well as have unpleasant side-effects such as wrinkles and bad breath. Smoking can also make you cough, sneeze or feel short of breath when you exercise.

Boosting your sex appeal

It’s a myth that smoking helps you lose weight, in fact it can cause cellulite. And kissing someone with a mouth like an ashtray isn’t sexy.

Saving money

Calculate how much your smoking habit is costing you in terms of money and you might be surprised how much you could save.

Protecting other people's health

Breathing in other people’s cigarette smoke, called secondhand smoke, can also cause cancer.

smoking around children - children exposed to secondhand smoke are twice as likely to get chest illnesses like croup, pneumonia bronchitis and bronchiolitis, and more likely to get ear infections, tonsillitis, wheezing and childhood asthma
mothers-to-be and smoking - smoking during pregnancy can affect both you and your baby’s health, and if you are exposed to secondhand smoke this can pass on harmful gases and chemicals to your baby
smoking in public - smoking is banned by law in many public places, including: all forms of public transport; theatres; cinemas; and public buildings

From the summer of 2007, smoking will be prohibited in all enclosed public places and workplaces, subject to a few exemptions.