Best Christmas Gift Ever - Quit Smoking

Dec. 24, 2010 - PRLog -- The best gift any smoker can give his spouse, children or grandchildren, nephews or nieces, friends or coworkers, is to quit smoking.   Announce it for Christmas, and then do it immediately, or take few days to plan and begin on New Year's day, suggests Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

Quitting will not only increase your years of life but also increase the quality of life for your years by helping to avoid crippling disabilities, something which will give those close to you an invaluable gift long after the holiday season ends.  It will save your family tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars; money which can be used to do many things you could otherwise never afford.

Quitting will also protect them from the now clearly-established dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke which kill more than 50,000 American nonsmokers each year, including more than 1,000 children, as well as send millions to the hospital with a wide variety of conditions.

Quitting will also protect them from thirdhand tobacco smoke - previously known simply as tobacco smoke residue - that mixture of carcinogenic and other toxic chemicals which cling to a smoker's clothing and body, and even appear in his breath, which we know also know can present health hazards to anyone around a smoker even long after he extinguished his cigarette.

In other words, just smoking outside away from your loved ones, while an important step, doesn't completely protect them from the same deadly chemicals they are forced to inhale if you smoke in their presence.  Quitting does, and also means you will no longer smell like a dirty ashtray.

Giving this gift to others by announcing that you will quit smoking is an important step in making a transition the overwhelming majority of smokers already want to make.  Your announcement can help for firm up your commitment, and your loved ones can help provide much needed support.

Santa quit smoking to protect Mrs. Claus and children, and so can you, urges public interest law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of ASH. http://act.tobaccochina.net/englishnew/content1.aspx?id=4...

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Professor of Public Interest Law at GWU,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
FELLOW, World Technology Network, and
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
701 4th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001, USA
(202) 659-4310 // (703) 527-8418
Internet: http://ash.org/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AshOrg

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Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), America's first anti-smoking and nonsmokers' rights organization, serves as the legal action arm of the anti-smoking community. It is supported by tax-deductible contributions.