|
|
| | |
| |
 |
| Local Mining: Coal |
| |
|
|
|
|
| This information is directly from the website for the benefit of the health of employees. |
| |
| A stroke is sudden and unexpected damage to brain cells that causes symptoms in the parts of the body controlled by those cells. It can affect thinking, movement, speech and/or the senses. It happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly disrupted. |
| |
| Smoking may cause an artery in the brain to become blocked by a blood clot or other debris carried in the bloodstream. This cuts off the blood supply to the surrounding brain cells and causes them to die. |
| |
Stroke is the third most common cause of death in Australia, after
cancer and heart disease. |
| |
| Stroke changes the lives of 40,000 Australians every year and smoking is the major contributing factor in 10,000 of these cases. |
| |
| Of those who suffer a stroke, 40% die within one year. Of the 24,000 people a year who survive a stroke, 12,000 are permanently physically disabled requiring varying levels of assistance. |
| |
| Stroke costs the community $1.6 billion a year, of which at least $400 million are the costs attributed to smoking. |
| |
| Smoking-caused strokes result in nearly 100,000 hospital bed-days being used every year, at a cost of at least $500 dollars per bed per day. (This does not include nursing home bed-days.) |
| |
| A smoker has at least double the risk of having a stroke as a person who has never smoked. |
| |
| A person who smokes 40 or more cigarettes a day has twice the risk of stroke compared to a person who smokes up to ten cigarettes a day. |
| |
| Stroke does not only affect elderly people. People in their 20s and 30s do die from strokes caused by smoking. |
| |
| When a smoker quits, the recovery process begins almost immediately and the risk of stroke reduces to the same as that of someone who has never smoked, within two to four years. |
| | |
Last updated on 17 December 2001 by the Population Health Division, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing.
URL: Smoking Doubles Your Risk of Stroke
For further information contact: Population Health Division,
Phone: 02 6289 1555
Email: quitnow@health.gov.au |
| |
|
The National Tobacco Campaign
A federal, state and territory health initiative
www.quitnow.info.au |
| |
|
Company
Profile
