Lung Information Sheet

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Some smokers know the damage their habit is doing to their lungs. They know that they wake feeling short of breath, they feel out of puff walking up stairs and they can't run like they used to.

Others either don't know, or think they will get away with it - that smoking won't harm them.

Now a national advertising campaign will constantly remind smokers of the damage their habit is doing to their lungs.

One of the advertisements makes it clear that cigarettes don't just harm a smoker's lungs, they rot them. Cigarettes paralyse and can completely destroy the minute hairs, known as cilia, which line smokers' upper airways and protect them against infection ⁽¹⁾ Cigarettes impair the lung's ability to absorb oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. ⁽¹⁾

Cigarettes irritate the lungs so the airways narrow, encouraging phlegm and making it harder to breathe. ⁽¹⁾ And cigarettes force carbon monoxide into a smoker's blood. ⁽¹⁾ Every advertisement smokers see is a reminder that every cigarette is doing them damage.

The campaign brings to mind an advertisement many will remember - the Sponge campaign first run in 1979. This advertisement made such an impact that it was still being used ten years later. In that campaign, smokers throughout Australia were shown graphically the enormous amount of tar and other carcinogenic material that passes through their lungs each year. And they remembered it.

The campaign was so successful it still lives in advertising folklore. A recent survey taken six months after the ad was repeated in Victoria in 1989 found that 19% of smokers said they had either quit, tried to quit or cut back on smoking after seeing that and other advertisements.⁽²⁾ More than 80% of people recalled the campaign. ⁽²⁾

Research has shown that people want health information about smoking.⁽³⁾ This new advertisement will remind them clearly and succinctly that if they smoke, they are deliberately rotting their lungs.

Lung Q&A

What does smoking do to my lungs?
It paralyses and can completely destroy cilia, which line your upper airways and protect you against infection. It destroys the alveoli, or air sacs, which absorb oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. It destroys lung tissue making the lungs less able to function. It irritates the lungs which creates phlegm and narrows the airways, making it harder to breathe. It forces carbon monoxide into your blood.⁽¹⁾

How does that affect me?
It makes you short of breath, it makes you cough, it gives you chronic bronchitis and repeated chest infections, it worsens your asthma and it gives you lung cancer.⁽¹⁾

That's apart from effects on your heart, fertility, pregnancy and your children.⁽⁴⁾

When does all this start?
It starts when you start smoking, and worsens with every cigarette.

But most people who smoke don't get lung cancer.
No. Most people die of other things first, often because they smoked.

If I give up, will my lungs improve?
Yes. Cilia that are paralysed but not destroyed can recover. Your asthma will improve, as will that of your children. You will have fewer chest infections. The sooner you stop, the better your chances of improving.⁽⁴⁾

References

1. The Health Consequences of Smoking: Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. US Department of Health and Human Services, 1984.
2. Health Warnings and Contents Labelling on Tobacco Products for Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy Tobacco Task Force, Centre for Behavioural Research in cancer, Anti-Cancer council of Victoria, 1992
3. Quit Evaluation Studies No 5, Victorian Smoking and Health Program, 1989:22-24
4. The Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation. US Department of Health and Human Services,1990

Page currency, Latest update: 14 February, 2006

For further information email: quitnow@health.gov.au

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