If you ask yourself why you should give up smoking just take a look at the risks and costs of continuing to smoke. First you should know that 22% of all male deaths are due to smoking and 11% of all female deaths have the same cause. Narrowed and hardened arteries, cold hands and feet, weakened bones, peripheral vascular disease, cold skin, osteoporoses and decreased fitness are just a few smoking effects, but the risk of developing smoking related illnesses can be reduced by giving up smoking.

Chemicals in Tobacco Smoke

In tobacco smoke are over 4,000 chemicals like carbon monoxide which is a colourless, odourless gas that in large doses is lethal, but in smaller doses causes shortness of breath and increased heart rate.

Another harmful ingredient within cigarette smoke is hydrogen cyanide, a colourless gas that evens a short-term exposure can lead to vomiting, dizziness, headaches and nausea.

And let us not forget about nicotine, the reason why cigarettes are as addictive as they are (to give up smoking would be far easier if you didn't have this little nasty in there!). In larger quantities nicotine is extremely poisonous; a person would die within minutes if you place 60g of pure nicotine on her/ his tongue.

Costs of Smoking

If you want to give up smoking, just think about the costs of smoking, and I am not just talking money, giving up can be a good idea. Besides the financial costs, smoking also has physical costs such as wheezing, reduced fertility, risky pregnancy, damaged circulation, damaged taste buds, nicotine-stained fingers, heart attack, lung cancer and the list goes on. And do not forget about the social costs like polluting the air with carcinogens, dusty and stuffy home, spoilt clothes and furniture, smoke gets in your eyes and so on.

Second-hand Smokers

Smoking also affect your love ones not only you. Non-smokers are also exposed to the 4,000 chemicals when they breathe other people's tobacco smoke. Secondhand smoking can affect your children; they are more likely to get chest illnesses, ear infections, wheezing and childhood asthma, tonsillitis and to smoke themselves. Exposing people around you to secondhand smoke you will put them at risk of the same diseases as you.

But it's not all doom, the minute you give up smoking your body starts to recover; your circulation improves, you breathe more easily, your skin warms up, your risk of disease starts to fall, you will have a cleaner, fresher house, you will no longer put the persons around you at risk and you will be a lot richer!