Smoking prevalence among people with disabilities is nearly 50 percent higher than among people without disabilities (29.9 percent vs. 19.8 percent), according to findings released October 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Preventing Chronic Disease. And yet it’s difficult to find any single habit more disastrous to the health of someone with a disability.
Taking care of your health is critical to living as active and independent a life as possible regardless of your disability, which means eating right, getting enough rest, avoiding excessive stress, and exercising at a level that works for you. However, choose to light up, and you’ll be putting your health—as well as that of everyone around you—in immediate jeopardy.
In 2007 alone, over 155,000 people died of lung cancer, with nearly 90 percent of those deaths caused by smoking. And while lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, smoking can increase the risk of getting many other types of lethal cancer as well. For example, smoking is responsible for most cancers of the larynx, oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, and bladder, and is a cause of kidney, pancreatic, cervical, and stomach cancers.
The role of smoking in increasing cancer risk is well established: doctors have known for years that smoking is among the most dangerous daily habits. And research shows that smoking harms nearly every major organ in your body. Cigarette smoke contains several thousand chemical agents, of which at least 60 are known carcinogens. With every puff, you’re welcoming into your body not only these poisons, but also tar, arsenic, lead, and carbon monoxide as well as nicotine, the addictive substance that makes it so hard to quit.
Further, you may be harming your non-smoking loved ones with your own smoking habit. Second-hand smoke—the smoke released from the end of your burning cigarette, combined with the smoke you exhale—causes 3,000 deaths among non-smokers each year, and hundreds of thousands of lung infections in infants and young children. And some personal care assistants will refuse to work for someone who smokes, knowing that exposure to second-hand smoke will harm his or her own health.
Should you quit? You probably have often heard about the terrible dangers of smoking, along with messages begging you to quit for your own sake and for the sake of your family. The short-term and long-term benefits of quitting are huge, no matter how old you are or how long you’ve been smoking.
In the short term, your heart rate and blood pressure go down, the poisonous carbon monoxide in your blood is reduced, and you’ll cough and wheeze less. In the longer term, your risk of devastating cancer is substantially reduced. Quitting at age 30 reduces your risk of cancer and other smoking-related diseases by 90 percent. Quitting at age 50 reduces your risk by 50 percent. Even quitting at 60 reduces your risk.
Quitting is hard, and you should seek advice and support from your family, your friends, and your doctor. But remember: they want you to quit. You want to quit. The rewards are great. Just do it—quit.
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Studies show fruits and vegetables help prevent lung cancer. For more information, see Certain Fruits and Vegetables Found to Combat Lung Cancer.
If you've been diagnosed with lung cancer and looking for books about lung cancer, see Your Guide to Lung Cancer.
