Category — Health

This is response to my previous post about children being more perceptible to health problems after living in a passive smoking environment.

I’m about to move out with my girlfriend next week which will be great, no more passive smoking for her. Her parents are a couple of chimneys which smoke in the house. It’ll be interesting to see whether her health improves as i’m sure the smoke causes some minor breathing problems. She’s been exposed to this for 24 years which isn’t great and the statistic that children have three times more chance of getting lung cancer later on in life scares me (and also makes me angry).

Advice for anyone living with smokers

Avoidance. Quite simply avoid the rooms they’re smoking in. This isn’t always very easy especially as in my case it was my mother/father in law to be’s house.

Put windows on the latch. A bit of respectful compromise goes a long way. Since we started dating i’d always be walking into the lounge and putting a window ajar. I would normally get berated for doing it but it helps.

Open doors. If all else fails make sure you at least stop the room you’re in from being closed completely off. The gas chamber effect i call it. Try to keep at least one door open. It makes a big difference. Down side being that it will fill the rest of house with smoke, but if you have to stay in the same room as the smokers it’s unbearable unless you do. Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate! Of course when you leave the room it’s more than acceptable to close the door of that room hehe.

Ionisers. These mysterious gadgets some how clear the smoke from the room. My girlfriend’s had a ioniser slaving away in her room since we started dating. Hard to say whether it actually does the job but it’s nice to think that it is. Although after a month or so the grime that builds up on them must mean they do something! Keep it clean as the metal pin that emits the ions soon builds up with dust.

Wear old clothes. It’s not just the health related aspect that’s the problem but the social one too. Smelling like an ashtray isn’t pleasant so wearing older clothes means you change into your cleaner garms at later point. Don’t go the extra length of wearing a smoking jacket.. that will take the biscuit!

Direct concern. Don’t nag the smokers in the room to give up it’ll get you nowhere and just leads to arguments. But a friendly “any more thoughts on giving up?” every now and again is worth a punt.

Leaflets. Any leaflets you might find down the NHS are worth placing around the house. Don’t be too blatant.

Hide their ciggies. A bit extreme but hell it’d work!

If anyone has an other suggestions please pop them in a comment. I’d love to hear them.

Alder Hey Hospital, in Liverpool, says that a 1/3 of the children it treats have conditions made worse by their parents smoking in front of them. We all know the risks of passive smoking so this comes as no real surprise to me. Conditions made worse are mainly respiratory as you’d expect such as bronchitis and asthma but also includes ear infections. I never knew second-hand smoke affected the ears before which is new to me. Perhaps that’s why girlfriend is infuriatingly deaf all the while! Or maybe i should just put it down to mumbling and selective hearing .

17 thousand under 5 year olds are treated for second hand smoke in the UK for exposure states the British Lung Foundation.

An ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) surgeon in the article also goes on state that passive smoking increases sticky runny noses, sore throats and ear disease.

Read full passive smoking article

This has spurred to me write a separate post about tips for those unfortunate to live in a passive smoking environment.

Smoking is the single biggest cause of cancer in the world. These words are emboldened on the Cancer Research UK site and for good reason. In this post i thought i’d spend some time looking into the statistics surrounding lung cancer related deaths in the UK.

Lung Cancer
In 2005 there were 33,500 lives claimed by lung cancer making it the most common cause of cancer death in the UK. The carcinogens from smoking over time cause your DNA in your lungs to mutate and divide. This then forms a tumour. The good(!) news is however that lung cancer is also one of the most treatable cancers. 90% of lung cancer is, yes you guessed it, caused by Tobacco.

What are the symptoms of lung cancer?

• Persistent cough
• Coughing up blood or phlegm
• Breathlessness
• Prolonged tiredness
• Weight loss
• Loss of appetite

How is lung cancer diagnosed?

• X-rays
• Scans
• Bronchoscopy – narrow tube camera via the throat
• Biopsy – sample tissue

How is lung cancer treated?
There are two medical types of lung cancer. Small-cell which accounts for 20% of diagnoses and non small-cell which is 80%. There are various treatments for lung cancer listed below:

• Surgery – This is used primary for the treatment of small-cell
• Radiotherapy – This is use of x-rays to destroy the cancer cells. It can be given externally and internally.
• Chemotherapy – This is the use of chemicals to kill cancers and stop them spreading.

In future posts i’ll go into more details regarding the treatments above.