SAFETYWISE - No Smoking on Campus

January 2014

No Smoking on Campus

Hong Kong Public Health Ordinance (Cap. 371) designates universities as one of the premises where smoking is not allowed anywhere on campus, indoor or outdoor. No person shall smoke or carry a lighted cigarette, cigar or pipe in designated no smoking areas, or else will be liable to a fixed penalty of $1,500.

Our security colleagues have noticed increasing violations in recent months and the Government's Tobacco Control officers have been issuing more penalty notices. Members of our campus community are reminded to comply with this legal requirement and to refrain from smoking while on campus.

Information on smoking cessation is available at:

www.tco.gov.hk/textonly/english/quitting/quitting_scc.html

Health Effects of Smoking

Tobacco has killed 50 million people in the last ten years, it is responsible for more than 15 percent of all male deaths and 7 percent of female deaths. If current trends continue, a billion people will die from tobacco use and exposure this century - one person every six seconds. In China, tobacco is already the number one killer - causing 1.2 million deaths a year - and that number is expected to rise to 3.5 million a year by 2030. (www.tobaccoatlas.org).

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention
(http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/):

Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of—

coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times,
stroke by 2 to 4 times,
men developing lung cancer by 23 times,
women developing lung cancer by 13 times, and
dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times.


source: http://neuro4students.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/annotated-ischaemia-copy.jpg

Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease

Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.
Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e. obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene).
Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e. a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen).

source: http://www.medicinenet.com/coronary_artery_disease_screening_tests_cad/article.htm

Smoking and Respiratory Disease

Smoking causes lung cancer.

Smoking causes lung diseases (e.g. emphysema, bronchitis, chronic airway obstruction) by damaging the airways and alveoli (i.e. small air sacs) of the lungs.



source: http://medimoon.com/2013/09/new-biomarker-to-detect-lung-cancer/

source: http://www.pharmaceutical-networking.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Chronic-Obstructive-Pulmonary-Disease.bmp

Smoking and Cancer
Smoking causes the following cancers: (in alphabetical order)

Acute myeloid leukemia
Bladder cancer
Cancer of the cervix
Cancer of the esophagus
Kidney cancer
Cancer of the larynx (voice box)
Lung cancer
Cancer of the oral cavity (mouth)
Pancreatic cancer
Cancer of the pharynx (throat)
Stomach cancer

Smoking and Other Health Effects

Smoking has many adverse reproductive and early childhood effects, including increased risk for—

Infertility
Preterm delivery
Stillbirth
Low birth weight
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Smoking is associated with the following adverse health effects:

Postmenopausal women who smoke have lower bone density than women who never smoked.
Women who smoke have an increased risk for hip fracture than women who never smoked.