The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million people a year around the world. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. The economic costs of tobacco use are substantial and include significant health care costs for treating the diseases caused by tobacco use as well as the lost human capital that results from tobacco-attributable morbidity and mortality.

In Malaysia, there are more than 5 million smokers and approximately 20,000 die from Tobacco Use.

All forms of tobacco are harmful, and there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco. Cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use worldwide. Other tobacco products include waterpipe tobacco, various smokeless tobacco products, cigars, cigarillos, roll-your-own tobacco, pipe tobacco, bidis and kreteks. E-cigarettes are also harmful to health

Globally, there are 1.1 billion adult smokers,

60% of them want or intend to quit.

Health benefits of Quitting Smoking/Tobacco Use

• Within 20 minutes, your heart rate and blood pressure drop.
• 12 hours, the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
• 2-12 weeks, your circulation improves and your lung function increases.
• 1-9 months, coughing and shortness of breath decrease.
• 1 year, your risk of coronary heart disease is about half that of a smoker’s.
• 5 years, your stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker 5 to 15 years after quitting.
• 10 years, your risk of lung cancer falls to about half that of a smoker and your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, oesophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decreases.
• 15 years, the risk of coronary heart disease is that of non-smokers.

Quitting smoking also reduces the chances of impotence, having difficulty getting pregnant, having premature births, babies with low birth weights and miscarriage.

Can people of all ages who have already developed smoking-related health problems still benefit from quitting?

Benefits in comparison with those who continued:

• At about 30: gain almost 10 years of life expectancy.
• At about 40: gain 9 years of life expectancy.
• At about 50: gain 6 years of life expectancy.
• At about 60: gain 3 years of life expectancy.

After the onset of life-threatening disease: rapid benefit, people who quit smoking after having a heart attack reduce their chances of having another heart attack by 50%.