How smoking affects your health
Did you know that:
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respiratory (lung) diseases are the third main cause of deaths in Torfaen and a major cause of both acute and chronic ill health, and most of these deaths are linked to smoking
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Torfaen has the second highest percentage of adults (18-64) in Wales who smoke. It’s 35% compared to the Welsh average of 30.5%
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tobacco smoking is the biggest cause of preventable ill health and premature death in the UK. More than 120,000 people die every year as a result of their addiction to smoking
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smoking causes 17% of all heart disease deaths and 30% of all cancer deaths including 84% of lung cancer deaths and at least 80% of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema
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statistics show that about half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their habit
Smoking killed five times more people in the UK in 2002 than traffic accidents (3,439); poisoning and overdoses (881); alcoholic liver disease (5,121); other accidental deaths (8,579); murder and manslaughter (513) and suicide (4066) added together.
Research carried out by Communities that Care 2005 discovered that 48% of young people in Torfaen said they had tried smoking. Fifteen per cent of young people described themselves as regular smokers and 4% described themselves as occasional smokers. Research indicates that about 450 children across the UK start smoking every day.