Short video about the non-smoker

Stop smoking with shocking short video?

08/28/2014

The health risks of smoking are well known. The black discoloration of the lungs, the smoker's cough, the risk of cancer - many smokers but does not deter this. This could change with a short video showing the difference between breathing a healthy lung and a smoker's lung in just six seconds.

On the video, Devon Arbelo already in February „youtube“ was uploaded, a gray-black discolored smoker lung is first to recognize, which is then filled via a tube with air to simulate breathing. However, the structure widens only minimally and the shape of a lung is barely recognizable. Immediately thereafter, the same process is repeated with a healthy lung. It is not discolored, significantly larger and widens considerably as soon as the air flows through the hose. In a drastic way, it becomes clear how much breathing is restricted in the long term due to tobacco consumption

About a quarter of Germans smoke
Whether the impressive short video on smokers unfolds a more sustainable effect, as the warnings of the cigarette packs and the comprehensive education campaigns remains questionable. According to the latest figures from the German Center for Addiction Issues (DHS), about 26 percent of Germans have so far not been prevented from using tobacco by preventive measures. Men show a much stronger tendency to smoking than women. Around 30 percent of men were smokers in 2013, while women accounted for only 21 percent of smokers, the DHS reports. According to the experts, around one fifth of the population are former smokers.

Smoking as the main risk factor for cancer
Overall, estimates the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA), the number of smokers in Germany to about 20 million. The most common would be young adults aged up to 29 years to catch a cigarette. In this age group smoke according to the DHS 42 percent of men and 33 percent of women. From a health point of view, this is questionable. Because „Smoking is the most important preventable risk factor for the development of cancer“, emphasized the BZgA director Prof. Dr. med. Elisabeth Pott on the occasion of the World Creed Day last year. Tobacco smoke contains over 4,800 different substances, a large number of which are toxic and carcinogenic. Although many people would know that smoking can lead to lung cancer, but less is known, „Cigarette use also increases the risk of a number of other cancers, such as esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer or bladder cancer“, the expert continued.

Smoke stop in any case appropriate
In view of the health risk associated with tobacco consumption, smoking cessation is definitely worthwhile, according to the BZgA, the sooner the better. With regard to the risk of lung cancer, for example, it can be assumed that the risk of disease of a person smoking after ten years is about half that of a person who continues to smoke. According to data from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, around 50,000 people in Germany develop cancer of the lungs and bronchi every year. In doing so, smoking forms the „by far the most important risk factor.“ Male smokers are about twenty to thirty times as likely as non-smokers to develop lung cancer, the DKFZ reports. In smokers, the lung cancer risk is nine times greater than at „Never-smokers“. Overall, about one in ten smokers in the course of his life to lung cancer or bronchial cancer, an average of 30 years to 40 years after the start of tobacco use. Yearly „An estimated 36,000 people in Germany die of lung cancer from smoking“, so the information of the DKFZ. (Fp)