But there’s some good news. If you stop smoking, the benefits start almost straight away. After just 8 hours, your oxygen levels start to get better, and the harmful carbon monoxide in your blood stream goes down by half.
What is it and why is it important?
Smoking is one of the biggest reasons people die and get serious illnesses such as lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and vascular dementia.
Smoking can cause more than 50 serious health issues. In fact, because the people around you like your family, friends, and community breathe in the smoke (passive smoking), it can damage their health too.
Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable death in Southeast London – 9,251 hospital admissions and 4,200 preventable deaths each year. There are 165,000 smokers here – 1 in 2 are at risk of dying early.
Did you know that vaping can be a great way to help you stop smoking? Swapping to vapes (sometimes called e-cigarettes) is one of the most effective ways to quit or cut down on smoking. You can access free support and vapes from your local Stop Smoking Service.
What can I do about it?
Here are a few tips you can try to help you stop smoking:
- access stopping smoking support
- switch to vaping
- avoid situations that make you want to smoke while you build new habits – for example, if you often smoke at certain times or in certain places, try to plan ahead or change what you do at those times
- write a list of all the reasons you want to quit smoking and look at it often
- pair up with someone else who’s trying to stop smoking so you can support each other
- get rid of ashtrays, lighters and any other reminders of smoking
- reward yourself when you reach quitting milestones
- get active to beat cravings, even a 5-minute walk could stop you from reaching for a cigarette
Did you know you’re 3 times more likely to quit if you access NHS quit-smoking support?
What support can I get?
There’s great support to help you quit smoking, including advice on vaping and other nicotine replacement products, available on the Stop Smoking London and the FRANK websites.
You can search for your local stop smoking service on the NHS website.
Stop smoking London also has these services:
- a telephone helpline which you can call on 0300 123 1044 if you’re struggling
- a series of apps, which you can find here.
You can also access support to stop on the NHS website, and download the NHS Quit Smoking app (from the App store or Google Play), which provides daily tips and encouragement straight to your mobile device.
The Targeted Lung Health Check programme is a national NHS pilot that is being trialled in Southwark and Greenwich. It’s being offered to people aged between 55 to 74-year-olds who have ever smoked. People in this group are at greater risk of developing lung cancer, so a lung health check helps us spot early signs of cancer when it’s more treatable. Click here to find out more about the programme.
Why is smoking bad and how can I stop?
- Smoking is the one of the biggest reasons people die or get serious illnesses such as lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and vascular dementia. Smoking damages the circulation of your blood, makes it much harder for you to recover from surgery, and can cause sexual health issues for both men and women.
- The harmful effects of smoking are from breathing in cigarette smoke, which contains more than 7,000 chemicals as well as tar. These chemicals and the tar are very toxic to our bodies.
- Nicotine does not cause cancer, or smoking-linked disease but is addictive and drives cravings to smoke. Products that contain nicotine without the toxins in cigarettes can be used safely to treat cravings and help stop smoking. This includes “nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)” products like patches or gum, or nicotine vapes (sometimes called e-cigarettes). Two other medicines called varenicline and cytosine are also available and highly effective at helping people stop smoking.
- Vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking tobacco because it does not involve burning tobacco or produce smoke (which contains the chemicals and tar which cause harm from smoking).
- If you have never smoked, you shouldn’t vape. No one under 18 should vape and it is illegal to supply a vape to a child.
- The best way of stopping smoking is with a combination of specialist support and the right medication, nicotine replacement and/or a nicotine vape. Local Stop Smoking Services, pharmacies and doctors including your GP can provide you with medicines to help you quit and support while you try. Lots of people in the South-East London community have already found the quit-smoking support helpful.
- If you smoke and live in London, the FREE Smoke Free App could help you quit.