March 18th, to be exact, was No Smoking Day a few weeks ago. We celebrated at work by inhaling fresh air and bursting open our smokes as is customary.
We also used the opportunity to prod those of us who still smoke (yes, there are still some of them here) to make a decision to stop.
They also have our full backing, of course. According to research, workplace smoking cessation programmes are a great tool for encouraging people to give up smoking.
Some of them have chosen to stop using altogether. Others have chosen the NRT path. Others continue to use vaporizers made by Vapingdaily.
But first, we discussed some of the top motivations to stop smoking in 2022 before everyone started their respective quitting journeys. We developed the following justifications:
Motivators for Giving Up Smoking
Quit smoking right now.
10. The surroundings
When discussing reasons to stop smoking, it is not frequently highlighted how cigarettes harm the environment. But it ought to be.
Unfavorable findings from a recent WHO assessment on the effects of smoking on the environment have just come to light. The paper detailed all the ways that cigarettes harm the environment, including the growth of tobacco, cigarette waste, and cigarette litter.
Several brief facts:
Since 1995, the manufacture of cigarettes has produced 45,000,000 tonnes of garbage.
Waste nicotine totaling 6,000,000 tonnes
Four million tonnes of chemical waste
The complete report is available here. And that’s only the proverbial “tip of the iceberg.” You should be aware of the harm that smoking and using tobacco does to both individuals and the environment. When you do, finding the drive to stop won’t be a problem.
9. Don’t Play with Fire Anymore (literally)
Tobacco burns. In actuality, the release of so many dangerous compounds is a result of the burning of tobacco. One reason why so many people have switched to vapes is because the finest vapes just heat nicotine, releasing less hazardous substances than combustible cigarettes do.
Other objects can burn when smoking. Another heartbreaking revelation from the WHO research is that, over the past ten years, cigarettes have caused 8–10% of all residential fires in the United States (about 90,000 fires annually).
Cigarettes can so not only kill you in numerous ways, but also burn down your home. Residential property isn’t the only thing that suffers. Forest fires are generally (well, 90% of the time) sparked by people. Although they are not always to blame, cigarettes nonetheless do a lot of harm.
A burning cigarette butt started the Fort Collins wildfire, which burned through portions of Colorado in 2017. 39 individuals lost their lives in the tragic Mont Blanc tunnel fire in 1999, which was caused by a single lighted cigarette that was thrown from a moving vehicle in the south of France.
8. Pick up your litter and be a quitter.
Do you know what kind of item is the most commonly left behind? Give away: it’s not paper receipts, plastic bags, cups, or bottle caps. It’s butts of cigarettes.
I can hear you asking, “But how can cigarette butts be the most littered thing in the world, when they are so small and tiny?” since I’m in your head right now. I’m about to implant the solution into your brain, just like Leonardo DiCaprio did in the movie Inception.
Around 1.1 billion people smoke worldwide. In a single year, these 1.1 billion smokers consumed more than 5.8 trillion (trillion with a T) cigarettes. Imagine if these billions of people disposed of, perhaps, dirty diapers or banana peels instead of smokes
If 5.8 trillion dirty diapers and banana peels were thrown out every year, you would notice the accumulation of them on city streets, parks, and beaches.
And with cigarette butts, it’s the same. But in addition to being numerous, cigarette butts are also:
They are non-biodegradable, which means that they can take up to 15 years to break down.
Especially in bodies of water, where they generate compounds known as “leachates,” which kill half of all marine life that comes into touch with them, they contain harmful and deadly chemicals that leak out into the environment.
7. Money wastage
Most people with a conscience should be able to quit smoking after reading the final three items. We’re finally getting to the reasons smoking is bad for you and you alone. You enjoy having money, right?
Why spend money on a habit that depletes your heart and lungs, then? Furthermore, a lot of money. To calculate how much money you may save if you stop smoking, try this simple calculator. Numerous statewide programmes to help people quit smoking give them free incentives including phone counselling and samples of NRT medicine.
But one research indicated that a lifetime of smoking can cost a million dollars or more in the states with the most costly cigarettes (New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island). Smoking causes expenditures that run into millions of dollars over the course of a lifetime, even in regions like the Midwest and the South where cigarettes are less expensive than in other areas.
You may always try using an e-cigarette to gradually wean yourself off of cigarettes if you reside in a state that does not provide free stop smoking assistance. It would be best to never use nicotine because many of the long-term repercussions of vaping are still unclear.
However, the greatest vapes available today are not only more affordable and cost-effective than smoking cigarettes, but they are also far less harmful.
6. An Attribute to Be Proud Of
The phrase “bucket list” has just recently become popular. Lists of everything you desire to do before passing away are known as bucket lists. It is possible that “giving up smoking” might rank first on a smoker’s bucket list.
But don’t berate yourself if you believe that skydiving or conquering Mount Everest are more admirable or fantastic goals than “stop smoking.” Your Mount Everest may be quitting smoking.
Consider the challenge you face: One of the most addicting chemicals on the earth is nicotine. In the first year after trying to quit smoking cold turkey, 85% of people relapse. It takes a lot of skill to stop.
Therefore, instead of bragging to your friends about your climb up Mount Everest, tell them with pride and a puff of air in your chest, “I stopped smoking.” It will really astound them.
5. Were the surroundings mentioned?
The significance and scope of cigarettes’ environmental damage are worth addressing for the fourth time, much as the first and second rules of Fight Club prohibit discussing about the organisation. However, it is surprising how much harm simply cultivating tobacco may do.
China, Brazil, and India are just a few examples of the emerging nations where tobacco is mostly grown. Like other crops, tobacco requires land to grow. And trees and other plant life begin to perish when there is not enough land. A significant contributor to global deforestation on a large scale is the clearing of land for the cultivation of tobacco.
Furthermore, because tobacco has any natural defences against other plants’ or pests’ pests, cultivating tobacco requires higher usage of insecticides and pesticides than growing other plants. Therefore, even tobacco cultivation is harmful to many.
4. Your Lovelife
The act of smoking after a satisfying romantic encounter has practically become a cliche. However, the truth is that smoking and using tobacco products may interfere with or completely thwart your intentions to relax.
Blood vessel constriction is caused by smoking. Additionally, narrowed blood arteries play a significant role in erectile dysfunction. Sorry if you’re reading this and thinking, “Thank God, I don’t have a penis,” but smoking has the same negative effects on libido in both men and women.
3. Your Life
Given how completely and utterly destructive cigarettes are, it stands to reason that quitting greatly increases your chances of living a longer life. The proof is all around us. Compared to when you were smoking, your heart and lungs work less hard.
Your heart rate returns to normal during the first twenty minutes of being unlit. There will be additional advantages the longer you don’t smoke. Your breathing becomes better. Your taste and smell senses come back to life and are more active.
Even more positive long-term impacts result from this. Smokers who give up before the age of 40 have a 90% chance of preventing most smoking-related ailments, if not all of them.
2. Your Wellness
Horses are such lovely animals, thus it is all the more heartbreaking and depressing that we must continue to whip a dead horse. Naturally not literally. Smoking is unhealthy. So it clearly states on the package!
Several quick figures:
The 4,000 distinct compounds in tobacco smoke, include tar, arsenic, and carbon monoxide
There are 250 hazardous compounds there.
50 of them have been linked to cancer.
Need we say more? We do, indeed. The main justification for giving up smoking in 2022 is:
1. saving lives
Regarding compelling reasons to stop smoking, this list extends beyond the purely individual. If the list of harmful impacts on the environment, tobacco farmers, and your health that we have examined thus far isn’t persuading you enough, consider simply one thing: the life that you will save, which is not your own.
The annual death toll from smoking is close to six million. However, the number of persons who pass away each year as a result of secondhand smoke is the most alarming: 600,000. 600,000! And none of these individuals had ever smoked.
Your death may have been caused by the tobacco industry, but who is to blame for all the other deaths? those who don’t even smoke? Campaigns to reduce tobacco use typically aim to shame smokers for the harm they do to themselves. Perhaps they should also concentrate on the unintentional deaths caused by smoking.
Regarding the author: The health blogger Phyllis Baker focuses on addiction recovery and smoking cessation. Her areas of competence also include lifestyle and self-improvement.