Why It's Important to Quit

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Women smoke for different reasons. Some women smoke to deal with stress or control weight. Younger women may start smoking to rebel, show independence, or be accepted by their peers. But there is never a good reason to smoke.

Health Reasons to Quit

Smoking causes serious health problems, including:

• cancers of the lung, throat, mouth, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, bladder, cervix, and stomach
• leukemia (a cancer of blood-forming tissues)
• lung diseases
• atherosclerosis, or hardening and narrowing of the arteries

• Read or share personal stories about the effects of smoking and quitting.

  heart attacks
• stroke
• gum disease
• eye diseases that can lead to blindness

Smoking also:

• makes illnesses last longer
• causes more wound infections after surgery
• makes it harder to get pregnant
• increases your risk of getting a hip fracture

Smoking during pregnancy is especially dangerous. Smoking while pregnant can cause:

• Why does birth weight matter? Low birth weight babies are more likely to die or have serious health problems. They are also more likely to have long-term disabilities, such as problems seeing or hearing.

  placenta previa—the placenta grows too close to the opening of the uterus or womb. As a result, the baby cannot be delivered through the vagina and must be delivered by cesarean section, or C-section.
• placental abruption—the placenta separates too early from the wall of the uterus. This can lead to early labor or infant death.
• early rupture of membranes, or water breaking, before labor starts, so the baby is born too early
• a baby with a low birth weight
• damage to an infant's lungs

Other Benefits of Quitting

When you quit, you will never again have to leave your workplace, your home, or other places to smoke. Over time, you will see some of the other benefits of quitting:

• your teeth will be cleaner
• your breath will smell better
• the stain marks on your fingers will fade
• your skin is less wrinkled
• you are able to smell and taste things better

You will also feel stronger and be able to be more active.

For more information on the effects of quitting smoking, see What Happens When You Quit?

Additional Information on Why It's Important to Quit:

Publications

1.   Learn About Your Risk from Smoking (or the risk of a smoker you know) - Everyone has heard that smoking cigarettes is unhealthy, but few people really know how big these health effects are. This tool gives individualized smoking risk information and allows smokers to get personalized information about their own risk.

   http://smokefree.gov/smokersrisk/

2.   Quitting Tobacco: Short-term and Long-term Health Benefits - This fact sheet provides information about the positive effects of smoking cessation.

   http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/quitting-benefits

3.   Seven Deadly Myths - Hosted by cover model, entrepreneur, and smoking cessation advocate Christy Turlington, this 17-minute video explores some of the common myths about smoking and empowers women to become or stay smoke-free.

   www.cdc.gov/.../youth/educational_materials/videos_dvds/health_effects/seven_deadly_myths/...

4.   Smoking and Your Digestive System - This fact sheet explains the harmful effects of cigarette smoking on the digestive system and explains how the damage can be reversed.

   http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/smoking/index.htm

5.   Targeting Tobacco Use: The Nations Leading Cause of Death - This report gives statistical information on the prevalence of smoking and the number of deaths attributed to smoking in the United States. It also discusses how the Centers for Disease Control are addressing this issue.

   http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/aag/aag_osh.htm

6.   The Benefits of Quitting - This fact sheet briefly describes the benefits of quitting compared with the harmful health consequences of smoking. Quitting smoking has immediate as well as long-term benefits, such as reducing risks for stroke, cancers, coronary heart disease, ulcers, peripheral artery disease, and low infant birth weight.

   http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/sgr_2004/posters/benefits.htm

7. Benefits of Quitting Smoking During Pregnancy (Copyright © National Partnership to Help Pregnant Mothers Quit) - If you are an expectant mother, this fact sheet explains how quitting smoking can improve your health and your baby's health. It also provides information on what to expect from the quitting process.

   http://www.helppregnantsmokersquit.org/vp/channels/quit.aspx

8.   Patient's Fact Sheet: Smoking and Infertility (Copyright © ASRM) - This fact sheet contains information about the impact of cigarette smoking on reproduction in women and on assisted reproductive therapy outcomes.

   http://www.asrm.org/Patients/FactSheets/smoking.pdf

9. Questions About Smoking, Tobacco, and Health (Copyright © ACS) - This publication answers common questions about health and tobacco use. It provides information on the health risks of smoking, nicotine, the connection between smoking and cancer, the harmful chemicals cigarettes contain and how they affect the lungs.

   http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_2x_Questions_About_Smoking_Tobacco_and_Health.asp...

10. What's So Bad About Tobacco? (Copyright © ACS) - These online fact sheets cover information on various forms of tobacco use. It also includes information on the health impacts of tobacco and how it affects women and kids specifically.

    http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/ped_10_1.asp?sitearea=PED

11. When Smokers Quit—The Health Benefits Over Time (Copyright © ACS) - This on-line fact sheet provides details on how quitting smoking can decrease your health risks each and every day. Beginning with the immediate effects of quitting, the benefits are outlined, from 12 hours on all the way to 15 years of living smoke-free.

    http://www.cancer.org/docroot/SPC/content/SPC_1_When_Smokers_Quit.asp?sitearea=PED...

Organizations

1.   National Cancer Institute, NIH, HHS
2.   National Tobacco Quitline, TCRB, NCI, NIH, HHS
3.   Office on Smoking and Health, NCCDPHP, CDC, HHS
4. American Cancer Society
5. American Heart Association
6. American Legacy Foundation
7. American Lung Association
8. Lungcancer.org

= Indicates Federal Resources

Content last updated March 19, 2008.