Smoking Is The Biggest Health Risk

 According To Danbury Hospital Experts

DANBURY –– Don’t start smoking. If you smoke, stop. Your risk for diseases is lower if you never have smoked.

That was the message at a recent Medical Town Meeting sponsored by Danbury Hospital, held on the national Great American Smoke Out, on “Lung Disease: A Focus on COPD and Lung Cancer. ” A panel of experts, including Douglas Kahn, DO, a pulmonologist; Noah Taylor, MD, a radiation oncologist; Vincent Rella, MD, an oncologist; and Michael Walker, MD, a thoracic surgeon and chairman of the Hospital’s Lung Tumor Board, discussed the causes and prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which includes bronchitis and emphysema; and the diagnosis and the treatment of lung cancer. They were joined by Marianne Mitchell, an advanced practice registered nurse and coordinator of Danbury Hospital’s smoking cessation program, “Quit Now.”

“Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States,” said Dr Kahn. Anyone who has smoked –– even for a short time –– has an increased risk of developing lung cancer, he added. They are also at risk of developing COPD.

“Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemicals, more than 200 of which are poisons, and more than 20 that cause cancer, ” according to Ms Mitchell. And, she added, nicotine is more addictive than heroine. Cigarettes routinely contain acetone, arsenic, cyanide, and formaldehyde. “When you smoke, you destroy lung tissue,” she said.

Secondhand smoke is equally bad for you, she said, exposing people to six times as much pollution as they would breathe on a busy highway.

But the good news from Ms Mitchell is that smoking cessation programs, like Danbury Hospital’s “Quit Now,” do work. While the national average for smoking cessation through programs is about 30 percent, according to Ms Mitchell, “Quit Now” enjoys a 40–50 percent success rate.

“Behavior modification and a group are the best combination to quit smoking,” she said. The nicotine patch and other products also are helpful.

“Smoking is the single most important modifiable risk factor for many diseases,” said Dr Kahn. “We all must do a better job of getting people to stop smoking, or better yet, never start.”

For more information regarding Danbury Hospital’s “Quit Now” Smoking Cessation program, call Marianne Mitchell, APRN, at 731-8732.1