Getting Your Patients to Go Tobacco Free

Every year in the U.S. over 392,000 people die from tobacco-caused disease, making it the leading cause of preventable death. Another 50,000 people die from exposure to secondhand smoke. Tragically, each day thousands of kids still pick up a cigarette for the first time. The cycle of addiction, illness and death continues. What can be done to stop smoking?

It starts with you.  Bringing Smoking Cessation into your practice as a key element to the treatment of your patients that smoke will help to drop these numbers of people that suffer and die from tobacco.  Our Breath CO monitor is a simple test that can help to diagnose just how high their CO is elevated and how the disease is progressing.  This is an aid to smoking cessation that can be used as a motivational and educational tool.  “Self-reported” smoking status amongst patients has been shown to be quite unreliable.  That’s where our monitor steps into play.

Not only do tobacco products kill us, but tobacco products negatively impact and damage our environment. Cigarette butts are not just a nuisance, they are toxic waste. They contain chemicals that contaminate our waterways and ground soil and harm our wildlife.  Discarded lit cigarettes can cause fires, which can damage homes and land.  It is also very costly to clean up cigarette waste – a problem that continues to grow every year.

To properly treat your patients, it’s time to implement a solid Smoking Cessation program in your practice.  It  is a key component to caring for your patients.  Encouraging them to stop smoking and to take better care of themselves along with their treatment plan will help their lung function and overall well-being.

For more information about Breath CO Monitors and Smoking Cessation, visit us at www.mdspiro.com.

References:
http://www.tobaccofreeca.com/smoking-problem/impact/
http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/ 
http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/ 
https://mdspiro.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=70
https://mdspiro.com/breath-co 
Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, & Barnes, “Cigarettes Butts and the Case for an Environmental Policy on Hazardous Cigarette Waste.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2009 May; 6(5): 1691-1705.
Register, Kathleen. “Cigarette Butts as Litter – Toxic as Well as Ugly.” Underwater Naturalist Bulletin of the American Littoral Society. 25(20), August 2000.
American for Nonsmokers’ Rights, “Tobacco Environmental Toll.” ANR Update, 27(4), Winter 2008.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs (SAMMEC)”.