Your Fresh Start
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
This March, kick the hardest habit.
Falling this year on 11th March No Smoking Day will roll around and encourage us to kick the habit. This annual campaign has a proven track record: research shows one in ten smokers quit on this day. It is a national moment to break free from nicotine – and that includes vaping.
The Stark Reality of Smoking
Tobacco remains a global catastrophe. The latest Global Burden of Disease Study estimates 7.36 million deaths were attributable to tobacco in 2023 alone, with tobacco exposure ranking as the leading risk factor for death among men worldwide .
Smoking doesn’t just cause lung cancer (responsible for 90% of cases) . It damages blood vessels, raises blood pressure, and triggers clots. Alarmingly, even one to two cigarettes daily increases heart attack risk by 5.6% per cigarette. The misery extends to bystanders: second-hand smoke causes 1.2 million deaths annually, mostly from heart disease .
The Vaping Dilemma: Untested and Uncertain
Vaping is often positioned as a cessation aid, and it is thought to be 95% less harmful than cigarettes. However, health experts are deeply uneasy. E-cigarettes are too new for us to see the long-term consequences. As Dr Panagis Galiatsatos of Johns Hopkins warns: “With cigarettes, you need 20-30 years to see chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or lung cancer. Vaping hasn’t been around long enough for us to see irreversible diseases yet, but biologically, the damage is happening”.
We know nicotine levels can be extreme (one pod can equal a pack of cigarettes) and that chemicals like formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds inflame lung tissue. While ‘popcorn lung’ scares have been debunked for UK-legal products, the mid-to-long-term health outcomes remain entirely unknown. This is not scaremongering; it is scientific humility. We are conducting an unconsented experiment on a generation.
Your Quit Plan: Practical Steps That Work
Success requires a plan, not willpower alone. Specialists recommend these evidence-based strategies:
1. Set Your Quit Date – Within Two Weeks:Choose a date that avoids major stress. Throw away lighters, ashtrays, and vape devices. Remove the visual triggers .
2. Use Nicotine Replacement Correctly:Patches, gum, and lozenges double your success rate, but most people use them incorrectly. Read the packaging. Combine a patch (slow release) with gum (fast relief).
3. Master Your Triggers:Stress, boredom, and social situations are common cues. Plan alternatives: chew gum, walk, or hold a pen. If friends smoke or vape, ask them not to do so around you .
4. Track Progress and Seek Support:Apps calculate your health recovery and money saved. Tell family you are quitting, their encouragement matters. Free support is available at: www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking
5. Quitting Vaping Specifically:If you switched from smoking to vaping, only quit vaping when you are confident you won’t relapse to cigarettes. Taper your nicotine strength gradually, a unique advantage over cigarettes.
