If you are a smoker, take out one of your cigarettes and break it in half. You just saved 11 minutes of your life.
Now, take that whole pack and throw it in the trash. Guess how many minutes of your life you just saved? 220! Can you believe that? It’s almost like magic. You just extended your life by 220 minutes in the 3 seconds it took you to throw that pack out. You can save your own life by just throwing away your pack of smokes.
To put this in perspective, if you were to quit smoking tobacco today, you could extend your life by 6.5 years if you have been a smoker all your life! This number doesn’t even account for the number of years your life will be cut short if you were to develop mouth or lung cancer. The detrimental effects of smoking tobacco could have a profound effect on you and your family. If this statistic doesn’t put the message across even more that smoking is not good for you, then I don’t know what would. You need to start thinking about your health and making it your top priority, otherwise you won’t be reaching your goal of being a non smoker any time soon.
National Kick Butts Day is a national day of activism that empowers youth, health advocates and community members to rise up and educate others about the negative effects of smoking cigarettes. It’s also the perfect day to quit smoking and extend your life long so you can spend more time with the ones you love. If you need more resources or would like to quit smoking, contact a smoking cessation program for help. Here’s a few Arizona smoking cessation resources to get you started:
- ASHLine — Located in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona and funded by the state tax on tobacco products, the Arizona Smokers’ Helpline (ASHLine) has been helping people quit tobacco since 1995. ASHLine offers free telephone and Web-based quit services and provides free training and technical assistance to healthcare providers statewide.
- Call It Quits — Call It Quits is a free iPhone and Facebook application for smokers who want to quit, are in the process of quitting or need help staying quit. This application will allow you to set your own goals, personalize your experience, create a support network and Call-A-Coach in those moments you need help the most.
- ASU Student Smoking Cessation Program — Arizona State University’s student tobacco cessation program includes visits with a tobacco cessation specialist, free online and on-campus resources and over-the-counter and prescriptive medication, gum or nicotine patches.
