Women can pledge to be smoke-free June 2 to June 8, 2014 and have the chance to win $1,000 cash in a new seven-day contest sponsored by BC Lung Association.
Powell River’s Judy Logan, volunteer director for the association, believes the contest is a great incentive for quit-ready women to give quitting a try. It can also help recent quitters “stay quit.”
“We are here to help anyone who wants to quit smoking and stay quit by providing them a little incentive and support,” said Logan of the Quit and Win program. “That’s why we decided to launch a new contest through our province-wide smoking cessation program QuitNow.ca.”
The contest focuses on women and inspiring stories can be read on the website. Women can enter the contest online.
Women and smoking numbers
• The number one preventable cause of death and disease for women is smoking.
• Thirteen per cent of women in Canada smoke during pregnancy. Complications from smoking during pregnancy include premature birth, miscarriage, stillbirths, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
• Average number of cigarettes smoked daily by women smokers in Canada is 13. A pack of 25 cigarettes costs $10 or more, so one woman spends close to $2,000 a year on cigarettes alone.
• Twenty per cent of all cancers worldwide are attributable to smoking. Women who smoke have higher risks for many cancers, including cancers of the lung, mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, larynx, bladder, pancreas, kidney and cervix.
• Twenty-four per cent of women smokers have their first cigarette within five minutes of waking up.
• Thirty-five is the age at which health care providers encourage women who smoke to use non-hormonal methods of birth control due to concerns about increased risk of complications such as blood clots, heart attacks and strokes.
• Fifty per cent of women smokers have attempted to quit at least once in the past year.
• Seventy per cent of women say they want to quit smoking.
• The number of women over the age of 15 who smoke in Canada is 2.2 million.
