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Surgeon General's Report Details How Smoking Harms Body
Benjamin Says Damage From Smoke Immediate
The report describes in detail how smoking affects the entire body, and it notes that cigarettes have evolved to become increasingly addictive.
Benjamin, a family physician from Bayou La Batre, Ala., said during the news conference that many smokers will need more than one attempt before they are able to successfully quit smoking, and the new data in the report could help cessation efforts.
"We have known that smoking causes a lot of problems, disease and cancer," she said. "We had not known how. I believe it's very important that every American knows exactly what's happening with their body, particularly people who are trying to stop smoking. They need to know there is a biological reason it's hard to quit so they don't give up."
Cigarettes contain more than 7,000 chemicals, including hundreds that are hazardous and at least 69 that cause cancer. Benjamin said those chemicals quickly reach a smoker's lungs every time the smoker inhales. Blood then carries the toxins to every organ in the body.
Healthy People Keeps Smoking Goal at 12 Percent
When the first surgeon general's report on smoking was released in 1964, more than 40 percent of Americans were smokers. Although that rate has been cut by more than half, there has been little progress on smoking cessation in recent years.
"We need to keep after this until we make a bigger dent in smoking, and that's what this renewed campaign is about," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during a Dec. 9 news conference that coincided with the release of a new surgeon general's report on smoking. "We've been stalled at 20 percent for over seven years. That's not a good place to be when 1,000 kids become lifetime smokers every day."
Sebelius said the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which was signed into law by President Obama last year, could help decrease smoking rates. The legislation gives the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products, and it has already moved to stop manufacturers from marketing cigarettes to children. The FDA also announced it will require that cigarette packages and advertisements have larger and more visible graphic health warnings.
The Healthy People 2020 website, which has information and objectives related to more than three dozen health topics, also offers resources for public health professionals.
Cigarette smoke also
- damages the lining of the lungs, which can hamper a smoker's ability to exchange air effectively and lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease;
- damages DNA, which can lead to cancer;
- weakens the immune system;
- decreases the benefits of chemotherapy and other cancer treatments and actually causes tumors to grow;
- makes it more difficult for people with diabetes to regulate their blood sugar, exacerbating health issues resulting from the disease; and
- causes numerous reproductive issues in women and men, as well as adverse development issues in their children.
"Patients who have been advised to quit smoking by their doctors have a 66 percent higher rate of success," said Benjamin, whose mother died of lung cancer.
HHS has developed a fact sheet for health care professionals that provides talking points and key information to help physicians talk to their patients about quitting.
According to Benjamin, quitting gives the body a chance to heal from the damage caused by smoking. When smokers quit, the risk for a heart attack drops sharply after one year. Stroke risk can fall to a level similar to that of a nonsmoker after two to five years. Risks for cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder are cut in half after five years; and the risk for dying of lung cancer drops by half after 10 years.
The report on smoking is more than 700 pages. However, a fact sheet with key points from the report, a 19-page executive summary (19-page PDF; About PDFs) and a 20-page, plain language booklet for consumers (20-page PDF; About PDFs) are available on the surgeon general's website.
FDA to Require Graphic Warnings on Cigarette Packages, Tobacco Ads
Public Invited to Comment on Proposed Rule
(11/12/2010)
AAFP Resources Guide Members in Coding, Getting Paid for Tobacco Cessation Counseling
(10/12/2010)
HHS Expands Medicare Coverage of Tobacco Cessation Counseling
Diagnosis Requirement No Longer Barrier to Payment
(9/1/2010)
More From AAFP
Policy on Tobacco and Smoking
Additional Resource
FDA: Tobacco Products
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