A UK media outlet reports:
“Smokers are to be denied operations on the Health Service unless they give up cigarettes for at least four weeks beforehand. Doctors will police the rule by ordering patients to take a blood test to prove they have not been smoking. The ruling, authorized by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, comes after medical research conclusively showed smokers take longer to recover from surgery. It is thought that 500,000 smokers a year will be affected. However patients’ groups argue that the move is about the NHS saving money rather than improving patient care.” About 12 million adults in Great Britain smoke cigarettes – 26% of men and 23% of women.
Will the United States follow the UK lead?
January 11, 1964, Surgeon General, Dr. Luther L. Terry’s report on Smoking and Health was the first official recognition in the United States that cigarette smoking causes cancer and other serious diseases. Since then twenty-nine Surgeon Generals have reported on the health consequences of smoking.
o 400,000 people die each year from cigarette smoking.
o U.S. citizens currently suffering from smoking-caused illness: 8.6 million
o Annual Federal and state government smoking-caused Medicaid payments: $30.9 billion
o VA health care for tobacco related illness: $9.6 billion
Many American companies have taken non-smoking policies one step further than being a non-smoking environment. November 30, 2006, a Buzzards Bay man sued The Scotts Co., one of the largest lawn care companies, for firing him after a drug test showed nicotine in his urine, stating that he had violated a company policy forbidding employees to smoke on or off the job.
Weyco Inc., fired four employees because they refused to follow a company policy that required all employees to “maintain a smoke-free and tobacco-free status at all times,” including off the job.
The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary reports, smoking costs more than $75 billion annually in direct and indirect medical costs. Beginning September 1, 2007 all applicants for jobs with the Cleveland Clinic, an Ohio health system and Ohio’s second largest employer will be tested for cotinine and rejected for employment automatically if the test indicates that they smoke or use smokeless tobacco.
Many employees are crying foul, because while smoking may account for $75 billion in medical costs, obesity accounts for more than $78 billion–$3 billion more than smoking.
This debate is the epitome of irony. The Health Services in the U.K. and the U.S. Surgeon General are judiciously giving people information to protect their health. Cessation of smoking prior to surgery has been advocated for decades due to carboxyhemoglobin and nicotine effects on heart rate, blood pressure, and increased blood viscosity and risk of postoperative deep venous. -The Internet Journal of Health – Internet Scientific Publications, LLC.
Why then, do people continue to smoke or begin smoking when these reports clearly correlate smoking and cancer and other diseases?
The answer is simple, albeit contrary to popular belief. Smoking is a way to cope, to numb or distract oneself from emotional pain. The compulsion of smoking solves the internal pain if only for a brief period albeit at the peril of cancer and other disease. However, since the internal pain is beyond their ability to override its excruciating effect, they can not merely stop themselves.
There are a plethora of clichés why people start smoking. If these clichés were accurate why then do 90 percent of those who fail to address their emotional issues as part of a smoke cessation program begin smoking again compared to those who resolve their emotional issues remain a non-smoker.
If you are a smoker–What do you need as your wake-up call? Would losing your job or not being able to have medical care unless you stopped smoking for a period of time be the precipitating factor?
If not that, then what will it take for you to decide to be a non-smoker?
Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, Author, “101 Great Ways To Improve Your Life.” Dr. Dorothy has the unique gift of connecting people with a broad range of profound principles that resonate in the deepest part of their being. She brings awareness to concepts not typically obvious to one’s daily thoughts and feelings.
http://www.drdorothy.net
Hercules Against the Moon Men (1964) 6of8
