Health Effects

Smoking Kills
Each year, about 19,000 Australians die from diseases caused by smoking. One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age.

Smoking Causes Diseases
Smoking is a slow way to die. The strain put on your body by smoking often causes years of suffering. Each time you have a cigarette you put yourself at risk of Emphysema, Lung Cancer, Heart Disease and Stroke, and a host of other serious conditions.

Emphysema
Emphysema is an irreversible illness that slowly rots your lungs. People with emphysema often get bronchitis again and again, and suffer lung and heart failure.

Lung Cancer
The tar in tobacco smoke causes lung cancer. Smoking causes the majority of lung cancer. Smoking damages a gene called p53 and this allows lung cancer to develop.

Heart Disease and Stroke
Heart disease and stroke are more common among smokers than non-smokers. Smoking makes the blood cells and blood vessel walls sticky which allows dangerous fatty deposits to build up. Smoking causes one in three deaths from heart disease in those 65 years old and younger.

Pregnancy and Children
Babies born to mothers who smoked in pregnancy are more likely to be premature, stillborn or die shortly after birth. A baby exposed to tobacco smoke has a higher risk of dying from SIDS (cot death).

Children whose parents smoke are more likely to get pneumonia and bronchitis in their first year of life, to suffer from more frequent and more severe asthma attacks, and to become regular smokers themselves.

Most people know the bad news about smoking, but many people don't think about the benefits of quitting.

» Benefits of quitting