Smoking kills!

Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable deaths in England, accounting for more than 80,000 deaths each year. “One in two smokers will die from a smoking-related disease” according to NHS UK.

How smoking contributes to illness

Smoking can cause, or contribute, to serious medical conditions, such as:

• Heart disease: toxins make your blood thicker; increasing the chances of clot formation. They increase your blood pressure and heart rate, making your heart work harder than normal. They narrow your arteries, reducing the amount of oxygen rich blood circulating to your organs.
• Hypertension: putting you at risk of a heart attack or stroke.
• Stroke: smoking increases your risk of having a stroke by at least 50%, which can cause brain damage and death and also increases your chances of suffering a brain aneurysm.
• Lung diseases: smoking can cause fatal diseases such as pneumonia, emphysema and lung cancer. Smoking causes 84% of deaths from lung cancer and 83% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Lung and other cancers: such as the increased risk of cervical cancer.
• Impotence and fertility problems: up to 120,000 UK men in their 20s and 30s are impotent as a direct result of smoking.
• Pregnancy: smoking can cause miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth and illness, and it increases the risk of cot death by at least 25%.
• Stomach: smokers have an increased chance of getting stomach cancer or ulcers.
• Gum disease and contributes to the development of ulcers.
• Worsens asthma and counteracts asthma medication by worsening the inflammation of the airways that the medicine tries to ease.

Be ‘Proud to be a quitter!’

Make 2016 your year to quit and stop on National No Smoking Day.

Get advice and support from the NHS/Smokefree

Read what the British Heart Foundation has to say about smoking.

Contact our medical negligence experts if you need advice on claiming compensation for substandard medical care and attention.