[QUIT TIPS]

Quitting smoking makes a difference right away—you can taste and smell food better. Your breath smells better. Your cough goes away. This happens for men and women of all ages, even those who are older. It happens for healthy people as well as those who already have a disease or condition caused by smoking.
Quitting smoking cuts the risk of lung cancer, many other cancers, heart disease, stroke, other lung diseases, and other respiratory illnesses.
Ex-smokers have better health than current smokers do. Ex-smokers have fewer days of illness, fewer health complaints, and less bronchitis and pneumonia than current smokers do.
Quitting smoking saves money. A pack-a-day smoker, who pays $2 per pack, can expect to save more than $700 per year. It appears that the price of cigarettes will continue to rise in coming years, as will the financial rewards of quitting.

Smoking definition: Cigarette smoking, is drawing smoke, fire and toxic substances into your lungs, for the purpose of giving the body a dose of nicotine, a highly toxic and addictive drug.
The day before your "Quit Day," go through your house, work, car and purse, and toss all cigarettes, lighters and ashtrays.
Create smoke-free zones in your home or car.
Each time you beat the urge to smoke, reward yourself in some small way. Congratulate yourself for your strength and effort.
Don't think of yourself as a smoker trying to quit. Think of yourself as a non-smoker, and you soon will be.
Write down your most important reason for quitting and look at it often.
Take two deep breaths. Inhale slowly and hold it, then exhale slowly.
Nibble on low-calorie items, like carrot sticks, celery, and apples.
Start a quitter's diary.
Look at pictures of your family and friends. Plan to be around for their birthdays, graduations and weddings.
Call the dentist and arrange for a mouth-freshening cleaning.
Hold out for five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes.
If you do have a cigarette, don't give up—just don't have a second cigarette.
After dinner, instead of having a cigarette, treat yourself to a mint or a cup of orange tea with honey.

More than two-thirds of all college graduates who have ever smoked have now quit.
1.3 million Americans successfully quit smoking each year. (American Lung Association data reported by the Detroit News, April 16,1997)
Smoking is an addiction. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, a drug that is addictive and can make it very hard, but not impossible, to quit.
Each year, there are more than 400,000 deaths in the U.S from smoking-related illnesses. Smoking greatly increases your risks for lung cancer and many other cancers.
Smoking harms not just the smoker, but their family members, coworkers and others who breathe the smoker's "second hand smoke."
Among infants under 18 months of age, secondhand smoke is associated with as many as 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia each year.
Secondhand smoke from a parent's cigarette increases a child's chances for middle ear problems, causes coughing and wheezing, and worsens asthma conditions.
If both parents smoke, a teenager is more than twice as likely to smoke than if the parents are both non-smokers. In households where only one parent smokes, teenagers are also more likely to start smoking.
Pregnant women who smoke are more likely to deliver babies whose weights are too low for the babies' good health. If all women quit smoking during pregnancy, about 4,000 fewer new babies would die each year.

Many of the effects of smoking are reversible within days or weeks, including non-chronic respiratory problems and symptoms associated with cardiovascular disease. Progress in other areas is slower. On the average, the risk of heart attack returns to normal levels after 3 years.
"Stopping smoking is easy to do; I have done it thousands of times!" Statement attributed to Mark Twain. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, May 1986, p.337
Your risk of developing cancer of the esophagus is reduced by 50% within 5 years of quitting.
Lung function can improve slightly within a few months of quitting. Your risk of death from COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) goes down with continued abstinence.
The risk of having a stroke or a brain aneurysm (bleeding in the brain) goes down by 30-50% in quitters.