Arsenic (used by famous poisoners)
Hydrogen Cyanide
Acetone (nail varnish remover)
Carbon Tetrachloride (dry cleaning fluid)
Polonium
Ammonium (Floor Cleaner)
DDT/Nicotine (Fly Killers)
Acetic Acid (vinegar)
Formaldehyde (pickling dead specimens)
Benzene (Petrol Fumes)
Hydrogen Sulphide (eggs)
Methane (Cows burps)

How smoking effects your body

Tar stained fingers
Poor circulation, cold fingers
Hair smells of smoke and goes gray younger.
Teeth are stained
More plaque and gum disease
More likely to need false teeth
Smokers often look older than they are.
Smoking removes calcium from bones,
So they are not as strong.
Reduces the bodies’ ability to fight germs.
Can cause serious chest illnesses, bronchitis,
Emphysema and tuberculosis.
Colds and flu last longer.
Coughing, sneezing, choking, wheezing
and shortness of breathe more common.
31,500 smokers per year die of lung cancer.
Risk of blood clots
Smoking can cause Asthma attacks
Stomach ulcers
Cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, liver and bladder
Smoking hardens and weakens arteries, and clogs them with fat.

The list could go on and on.

If smoking is so bad for us then, why do so many people do it? The answer is simple it’s nicotine. Nicotine is one of the deadliest and most addictive substances. Nicotine is what makes people come back for more and more. If nicotine were taken out of cigarettes then all the tobacco companies would end up bankrupt. Most people feel sick and light headed when they first try smoking but once they have tried it a few times they are hooked and have got used to it.

Somebody in Britain dies of smoking related disease every four minutes. That is an average of 120,000 people per year. About half of all teenagers who keep smoking will eventually be killed by tobacco. Half of these will probably die between the ages of 45 and 70. If they hadn’t smoked they would probably live an extra twenty to twenty-five years longer. The rest will die later, perhaps having suffered throughout their life from more diseases and disorders than most smokers. Most people killed by tobacco started in their teenage years.

Is it worth giving up?

It certainly is! It’s never too late, even the very old could benefit. The sooner you give up the better. Without the daily doses of poisons your health will start to improve immediately. Your pulse rate will return to normal within about twenty minutes of quitting. In the next two days toxic chemicals such as nicotine and carbon monoxide are expelled from the body. Blood circulates better. Within a few months, lung capacity grows, and coughs clear up. If a young person quits, soon there’s no difference between the health of a smoker and a non-smoker.

Come on then Kick the Habit

As soon as you start thinking about stopping, it is suddenly easy to think of problems- reasons to delay? Are they really problems or are they excuses? If you stop before you get ill you are likely to remain healthy. The sooner you stop the better.

Contact your GP or one of the Help Lines for the best advice on how to Stop Smoking.

Help and Support

Smokers Help-line 0800 169 0 169
NHS Pregnancy Smoking Help line 0800 169 9 169
Quit Line 0800 00 22 00
Child Line 0900 88 44 44

If you take 100 teenagers who smoke throughout life,
the chances are that this is what will happen to them…

Almost certainly none of them will be murdered.

And none will die from a Radiation Leak from a nuclear power station.

None will be killed by a terrorist bomb.

None of them will die in an air crash.

And none will die in a war.

One of them might be killed on the roads but, probably not.

Fifty will die before their time caused by smoking related diseases.