Smoking health problems in UK
Smoking has more than 50 ways of making life a misery through illness and more than 20
ways of killing you. In general, smokers endure poorer health than nonsmokers. It has been
estimated that, in England, 364,000 patients are admitted to NHS hospitals each year due to
diseases caused by smoking.
This translates into 7,000 hospital admissions per week, or 1,000 day. In 1997/98, cigarette smoking caused an estimated 480,000 patients to consult their GP for heart disease,20,000 for stroke and nearly 600,000 for COPD.
Half of all teenagers who are currently smoking will die from diseases caused by tobacco if
they continue to smoke. One quarter will die after 70 years of age and one quarter before,
with those dying before 70 losing on average 21 years of life. It is estimated that between
1950 and 2000 six million Britons, 60 million people worldwide, would have died from
tobaccorelated diseases.
Nonlethal illness
Smokers face a higher risk than nonsmokers for a wide variety of illnesses, many of which
may be fatal (see “Deaths caused by smoking” below). However, many medical conditions
associated with smoking, while they may not be fatal, may cause years of debilitating illness
or other problems.
One in two longterm smokers will die prematurely as a result of smoking – half of these in
middle age. The most recent estimates show that around 106,000 people in the UK are killed
by smoking every year, accounting for one fifth of all UK deaths. Most die from one of the
three main diseases associated with cigarette smoking: lung cancer, chronic obstructive lung
disease (bronchitis and emphysema) and coronary heart disease. The table below shows the
percentage and numbers of deaths attributable to smoking, based on the latest available
detailed breakdown (2002 data).
Source and Full Article: www.hypno-health.org.uk/hhal%20stop%20smoking%20library/Medical%20Facts%20-%202.pdf
Tags: bronchitis, cigarettes illnesses, health problems related to tobacco, smoking UK