It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been smoking — it’s never too late for you to stop.
That’s the message from the Canadian Lung Association (CLA) in celebration of National Non-Smoking Week. The health advocacy organization and each of its provincial affiliates want to get more smokers to think of themselves and the people around them.
“People are starting to quit smoking but not as fast as they should be,” explained Deb Steele, director of communications for the Lung Association of Alberta and North West Territories. “COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is the only chronic disease that is going up. It’s the fourth leading cause of death.”
The disease affects more than 750,000 Canadians, Also known as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, it is a chronic lung disease that starts with coughing fits and shortness of breath, plus repeated lung infections.
In her position Steele sees and hears from a broad cross-section of the population and learns their stories about how smoking has impacted their health, including about a dozen smokers who have had to undergo double lung transplants.
There are also those who never picked up the bad habit in the first place but still suffered from exposure to it. She related the story of a woman in her 40s who is on the transplant wait list.
“She has become virtually a shut-in. She carts oxygen around all the time.”
According to a recent CLA study, 35 percent of smokers still smoke indoors in the company of others including 18 percent who do so around children.
“Children are more vulnerable to second-hand smoke because they breathe at a faster rate and their bodies absorb more pollutants to their lungs than adults,” stated Dr. Shannon Walker, the co-author of the study and a University of British Columbia respirologist.
“You need to quit smoking. Once you quit smoking, life will get better.”
She said that the first step is to talk to your doctor about lung health and ask for a spirometry test to check your lung function.
To access more information or resources, please call 780-488-6995 or visit www.ab.lung.ca.
