Self-care is to breathe clean air.
Lungs were made to breathe clean air, receiving oxygen from incoming air which enters the bloodstream, and allows carbon dioxide (a waste gas) to leave the blood.
Unhealthy lungs are not able to do this well, causing poor health.
We live in a world where the air is polluted and not clean.
So why add insult to injury by insisting on filling our lungs with known cancer causing agents contained in tobacco products, which make us susceptible to over 20 cancers; chronic respiratory disease and Tubercolosis (TB)?
In a media release it states:
It just doesn’t make sense – we are issued into this life with one set of lungs, we need to take better care of them.
CANSA urges everyone to consider quitting the use of tobacco in any form, to help lower cancer risk, as part of its #365DayHealthChallenge, and leading up to #WorldNoTobaccoDay (31 May).
What Legacy are you leaving?
The choices we make don’t impact us alone.
Second hand smoke is a killer too and the global health burden caused by tobacco use, a financial drain – the consequences of your smoking may well outlive you.
Leave your loved ones better than you found them, and boost South Africa’s economy by quitting and lowering your cancer risk, as well as your risk for other illnesses related to tobacco.
• Tobacco smoking and second-hand smoke can also trigger inactive TB infections.
Those with active TB may risk disability or even death by smoking.
• Smokers with HIV have three times the chance of getting TB compared to non-smokers with HIV.
e-Cigarettes must be included when considering the health risks associated with second hand smoking, because the use of these products leads to the emission of fine / ultrafine inhalable liquid particles.
Our youth going up in a puff of smoke
Nearly 28% of learners Gr. 8-11 and mostly (over 80%) aged between 14-18 years reported to having smoked in the 2011 South African Youth Risk Behaviour Survey., nicotine and cancer-causing substances into the air.
Youth are led to believe that hookah smoking or using hubbly bubbly is not harmful and that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative to smoking, but hookah use has many of the same health risks as cigarette smoking and the safety of e-cigarettes has not yet been scientifically shown.
Testing has highlighted that e-cigarettes vary widely in the amount of nicotine and other chemicals they deliver, and this is not communicated to buyers.
Nicotine exposure also negatively affects brain development in teens and young adults.
CANSA is currently funding a Masters student’s research project with young adults at the University of Cape Town, to explore knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and behaviour regarding e-cigarettes.
Results support the need for raising greater awareness around e-cigarettes, as well as the need for adequate regulation of these products.
#CANSAResearch.
QUIT – for health’s sake
Ten years after quitting smoking, personal cancer risk is half that of a smoker and immediate health benefits may be experienced.
Although e-cigarettes have been marketed as aids to help quit smoking, the evidence that they help is unsupported.
In fact they may encourage more regular use of nicotine. They’re also more expensive than cigarettes, and smokers may return to cigarettes to save money.
• Admit that smoking is harmful to you.
• Decide to quit and find support.
• View helpful tips from Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking Programme – a CANSA Smart Choice.
• Subscribe to CANSA’s eKick Butt programme which supplies a series of handy tools to help you quit through a series of emails.
• Call the National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) QUIT Line: 011 720 3145 or email: quit@iafrica.com.
Non-smokers:
• Scream at the top of your lungs for your right to a smoke free environment and good health, encouraging smokers to quit.
• Support of the new draft bill on tobacco control published for comment in May 2018 by the Minister of Health (Control of Tobacco Products & Electronic Delivery Systems, 2018).
The amendments include: 100 % smoke free public places; standardized plain cigarette packaging with graphic health warnings; regulating electronic cigarettes as tobacco products; removal of cigarettes from view and from vending machines.
#CANSAadvocacy
• Report smoking in non-smoking areas: Complain to the owner of the premises or report this to the Environmental Health Office in your municipal area.
If you reach a bottle-neck report this to CANSA Toll Free line 080 006622 or advocacy@cansa.org.za.
Employers:
• Know and abide by the law.
• Protect employees’ health by ensuring clean air and a smoke-free work environment.
• Efforts should also be made to educate employees about the health risks.
Parents:
• Educate your children on the dangers of tobacco use in any form, including hubbly bubbly and e-cigarettes.
• Model positive ways to reduce stress and have fun.
• Teach children what their rights are, as well as their responsibilities towards others.
