Reasons to Quit

Quitting Today

If you stop smoking today, there are many benefits. The sooner you give up smoking the better.

After quitting for ...

• 20 minutes: Your blood pressure and pulse return to normal.
• 8 hours: Nicotine, carbon monoxide and oxygen levels in your blood begin to return to normal.
• 2 days: Your lungs start to clear, and your sense of taste and smell begin to return.
• 3 days: Breathing is easier, and your energy level increases.
• 2 to 12 weeks: Your circulation improves, and exercise gets easier.
• 3 to 9 months: Breathing problems, coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing improve.
• 5 years: Your risk of having a heart attack falls to about half that of a smoker.
• 10 years: Your risk for lung cancer falls to about half that of a smoker. You have the same risk of a heart attack as someone who has never smoked.

Save Yourself Thousands of Dollars

Smoking is very expensive. At today’s rates, smoking one pack of cigarettes a day for the next 20 years could cost you over $54,000! Write down how much you spend on cigarettes every day for a week. Then work out how much your smoking costs you every year. Think of what else you could do with the money you save.

Look After Those Around You 

If you smoke, you may be exposing your friends, partner or children to your smoke and endangering their health. If people are exposed to tobacco smoke, they have a higher risk of breathing difficulties, and they risk getting lung cancer.

It is possible to quit using tobacco and live smoke-free.

The goal of Smoke-Free Life Program is to help you create a plan to quit that will work for you. We achieve this by addressing three key components: 

• Ending the physical addiction and craving
• Looking at your emotional reasons for smoking, such as stress or boredom, and identifying new ways to handle these issues
• Finding effective ways to break the habit of using tobacco