Stop smoking before it stops you

Abby Ellen Dugan, my aunt's third child, was born this past Tuesday. Unfortunately, Sallie Ellen Dugan, for whom baby Abby is named, will never get to know her grandchild since she died of cancer last March. My grandmother, a life-long smoker, died knowing that her years of ignoring the statistics and facts that were stacked against smokers cost her time with her life's work-her family.

Perhaps she had accomplished all she was meant to in life. But Sallie was only 63, and, as you can tell, her family was still growing. Sallie worked as an admissions secretary at Lon Morris College and spent a lot of time talking to college smokers once she got sick. She even told me that maybe that is why she got ill, so she could save people who were much younger.

In this day and age of "truth" television campaigns and public smoking bans, it seems absurd not to be anti-smoking. It is even hard to find a smoker who is pro-smoking. Yet almost every time I walk to class I end up behind someone who is smoking and fall victim to their smoke plume.

These are not 60-year-olds who have been smoking since before they knew it was harmful; these are our peers who have only known cigarette packages with surgeon general warnings on them. In fact, the majority of smokers begin before the age of 18 and 90 percent begin before they are 20.

An estimated 15 percent of college students smoke daily. Chances are if you are not a smoker, then you know several friends who smoke at least occasionally.

The 2001 Georgia Tech College Health Risk Behavior Survey showed that 49 percent of Tech students have tried cigarette smoking. Almost one quarter (22.5 percent) of students reported current smokeless-tobacco or current cigarrette use.

One of my friends recently told me that she just smokes at the occasional party and she never feels like she needs one or that she does it enough to impact her health. Unfortunately, her occasional habit is still dangerous; it is predicted that one-third of youth smokers will eventually die from a tobacco-related disease.

Smokers used to be able to deny that it was harmful, but then came the hard facts about its damage to a smoker's body and how quitting helps. Smoking puts you at a greater risk for cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, heart attacks and strokes.

However, the damage can still be minimized. Only one year after quitting smoking, your added risk of coronary heart disease is cut in half and within five to 15 years of quitting, your risk of experiencing a stroke is reduced to that of a non-smoker.

Until recently, smokers were able to claim that they only hurt themselves, but now it is common knowledge that secondhand smoke kills. In the U.S., 50,000 people die each year from secondhand smoke-related disease.

Sadly, smoking has an impact before many children can even crawl away from it. Since 1964, there have been 94,000 tobacco-related fetal and infant deaths in the U.S.

No smoker plans to smoke forever, although it often ends up that way. And every day that you choose to smoke is a day you choose to damage your body. Consider this almost ridiculous Brooke Shields quote: "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."

It seems obvious, but maybe she was onto something besides not letting anything get between her and her Calvins.

Sooner or later everyone stops smoking. Either choose to stop now and gain control or let the damage it is doing to your body force you to stop when you die.

Each year less than five percent of smokers succeed in quitting. Like most good decisions in life, quitting smoking is not easy.

Still, cigarette smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. Do not let it prevent you from living the life you want or getting to hold every grandchild that you can.

If you should decide to quit, the Student Health Center and the Wellness Center have resources to help you. According to their website, the centers provide quit support to students through accurate information on behavioral quitting strategies, nicotine replacement therapies, non-nicotine medications and referrals to on-campus quit resources.

Statistics for this article were from studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.