SMOKING
Smoking is the largest avoidable cause of cancer

30% of all cancer deaths are caused by smoking

THE FACTS

• Smoking is the largest avoidable cause of premature death and disease. Lung cancer causes about 37,000 deaths a year in the UK alone. That's over 100 deaths every day. Smoking is responsible for 86% of these.
• Lung cancer is the most common cancer in men and the second most common in women.
• If you smoke 25 cigarettes a day you are 25 times more likely to get lung cancer than a non-smoker. The earlier in life you started smoking the greater your risk of getting lung cancer.
• People who are regular smokers and drinkers are more likely to get cancer of the throat. Only 5% of those who get cancer of the throat survive for more than five years.
• If you smoke cigars or pipes you still run the risk of getting cancers, particularly cancers of the mouth, throat and gullet - and, of course, lung cancer.

HOW TO REDUCE YOUR RISKS
The main way of reducing your risk of cancer is to slop smoking, or better still not to start. Your risks of developing cancer begin to fall as soon as you give up smoking unless the tumour has already begun to develop.

WHAT-HAPPENS TO YOU WHEN YOU QUIT?

• After a few days your senses of taste and smell begin to recover.
• After a few weeks your lungs are cleaner and your lung capacity is increased.
• After a year your risk of a heart attack is now half what it would have been if you were still smoking.
• After ten years your risk of lung cancer is up to half that of a continuing smoker.

PASSIVE SMOKING
Passive smoking is breathing in other people's cigarette smoke. Many people find this unpleasant and it can be dangerous. Only 15% of the smoke from a cigarette is inhaled by the smoker – the rest goes into the surrounding air and other people can breathe it in.

The Health Education Authority estimates that nearly one in two children are exposed to passive smoking in the home. Smokers should keep their cigarette smoke away from other people as it can affect the health of those around them.