With today being National No Smoking Day it was a good chance for the ACE CVD Lifestyles team to come to HQ with their education display.  

Adele Choat and Liz Partner spent a couple hours in reception chatting to staff and visitors, many of whom they found, do not smoke.  

"It felt like we were preaching to the converted" said Adele  "Which is great, the only referrals we got were for family members, not any of our colleagues".

On display was a jar of tar which represents the amount of tar that passes through the lungs of a 10-a-day smoker in one year!

  And here, the tubes represent your arteries.  

Smoking cigarettes makes the walls of your arteries sticky from the chemicals, so fatty material can stick to them. If the arteries that carry blood to your heart get damaged and clogged, it can lead to a heart attack. If this happens in the arteries that carry blood to your brain it can lead to a stroke.

Some key facts about smoking:

• Smokers see their GP a third more than non-smokers
• Half a million hospital admissions each year are linked to smoking
• In 2017 in England, 77,800 deaths were attributable to smoking
• Those aged 25 to 34 years have the highest proportion of current smokers
• There are more male smokers in the UK than female (16.5% vs 13%)

If you are looking for some help on quitting smoking, take a look at: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/for-your-body/quit-smoking/