Be smart, never start. This is the message from the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) for its anti-tobacco campaign in May leading up to World No Tobacco Day on 31 May. This year's theme is Youth Against Tobacco, so CANSA encourages all young people to be smart and never start this deadly habit in any shape or form. Avoid cigarettes, snus, snuff, hookah pipes and hubbly bubbly.
Smoking is not cool. It makes you stink and feel sick. Smoking puts so many poisons in your body that you could get these nasty diseases: Many cancers (eg lung, throat, mouth, tongue, bladder, cervix, pancreas, kidney, stomach) Heart attacks Strokes Blood vessel disease Emphysema Chronic bronchitis Peptic ulcers Impotence
Over 42 000 South Africans die every year from tobacco-related diseases. The tragedy is that all these deaths could be prevented.
If you don't die from tobacco, you are likely to be very ill for many years, fighting for your breath.
Stop second-hand smoke Even if you don't smoke, breathing in someone else's smoke is dangerous too. A non-smoker sitting in a smoke filled room for 8 hours will breathe as many cancer-causing chemicals as if he or she had smoked 36 cigarettes. Tobacco and second-hand smoke contain over 4 500 chemicals. Smoke from the burning end of a cigarette has more poisons than smoke inhaled by the smoker. Some of these poisons include acetone (in paint stripper), naphthalene (in mothballs), butane (in lighter fluid), arsenic (in ant poison), ammonia (in toilet cleaner), phenol (in disinfectant) and carbon monoxide (in exhaust fumes). Children who breathe second-hand smoke are more likely to get colds, allergies, asthma, middle ear infections, and "glue ear", which is the most common cause of deafness in children. Exposure to second-hand smoke and smoking while pregnant are both linked to miscarriage, low birth weight and stillborn births. Babies who breathe in second-hand smoke have a higher risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Push for a smoke-free South Africa!
Strive to make your home, school, workplace and community smoke-free.
Get a group of friends together to sign a pledge that you will never smoke.
Support the Anti-Tobacco Laws and report those who break them.
Don't allow smokers to smoke around you or in your home.
If you live with smokers, set up a place outside where they can smoke, and help them quit.
For more information call CANSA toll free on 0800 22 66 22 or see www.cansa.org.za or media can contact Martha Molete, Head: Communication, CANSA, 011 616 7662 or email mmolete@cansa.org.za
Visit our PRESS OFFICE: The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) is a 76-year-old non-profit organisation dedicated to fighting cancer to save lives. Our mission is to reduce the impact of cancer by promoting health in all communities within South Africa through advocacy and the sustainable facilitation of research, prevention, early detection and care.- more....
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