Quit Programs

• Fresh Start
• Smarter Than Smoking
• Quitting Resources
• Guidelines For Programs
• How to Quit
• Quit Agencies in Australia

Quitting is an individual decision. Every individual needs to determine which method is best suited to their personal situation. ACOSH does not currently run smoking cessation programs. Below are some links and information on individual as well as workplace quit programs.

Cancer Council WA - Policy and Tobacco Program; Fresh Start Program

The Fresh Start course

The Cancer Council Western Australia's Fresh Start program offers two services:
1. Evidence-based group counselling for smokers who want help to quit; and
2. Training for health professionals who wish to assist their clients to quit smoking.

For more information: Cancer Council WA website
Email: inquiries@cancerwa.asn.au

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Smarter Than Smoking

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Quitting Resources

Quitnow is an excellent site which has information on quitting in Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Korean, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese. The Australian national quit campaign is a Federal, State and Territory health initiative.

We recognise that, for many people, smoking can be difficult to quit. However, there is nothing in cigarette smoke that removes the ability of someone to stop smoking providing they have the belief in themselves and the motivation to do so.

Quitline - 13 7848 (call for free information and confidential counselling 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

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Guidelines for Programs

The following guide prepared jointly by the AMA and ACOSH will help you to make an informed decision about the right program for you.

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How to Quit

So you are a smoker, but you want to join the majority and become a non-smoker. You want to quit.

If you are a typical smoker and smoke about 20 cigarettes a day you have been taking in about 200 doses of nicotine every day, that's about 73,000 doses of nicotine each year. Now you have decided to stop, you are probably wondering what is going to happen to you.

Here are some of the things that might happen to you as you work on becoming a non-smoker. As all people are not the same, it is difficult to say which will happen to you, and which will not.

There are two groups of tobacco withdrawal symptoms: the physical symptoms which usually take a few days to overcome and the psychological symptoms which can take several weeks or several months. Becoming a non-smoker requires persistence and determination, and a variable amount of time. Not everyone succeeds in becoming a non-smoker the first time that they try.

People who have recently quit sometimes experience nausea, headache, agitation, constipation, diarrhoea, increased appetite, inability to concentrate, drowsiness and fatigue, as well as insomnia and other sleep disturbances. The good news is that these initial withdrawal symptoms usually pass within 3 to 14 days.

At least 90% of people that have quit experience some craving for tobacco. It usually reaches its first peak within 24 hours after stopping, and gradually reduces over the next 7 days. It may then start rising again, and persist for 4 to 8 weeks.

Short-term benefits of quitting include:

• Nicotine in the body: Approximately 12 hours after stopping smoking there is no more nicotine in the blood stream.
• Lung function and breathing: Within a few days of quitting lung function improves. Breathing becomes easier and you will be able to do a given amount of exercise more easily than before. Within 2 months the lungs will no longer produce extra phlegm caused by smoking.
• Blood flow to the limbs: Approximately 8 to 9 weeks after stopping smoking, blood will flow more easily to the fingers and toes, giving more energy for doing things.
• Appearance: Your breath no longer smells of stale smoke. Your fingers and teeth are no longer stained with nicotine. Your clothes and hair smell fresh.

Long-term benefits include:

• Overall risk of dying from a smoking related disease: As soon as a person stops smoking they begin to reduce their risk of dying from a smoking related disease, and after 10 to 15 years their risk of dying from a smoking related disease is almost the same as that of someone of the same age who has never smoked.
• Risk of lung cancer: After ten years of stopping smoking, the risk of lung cancer is less than half that of a smoker, continually declining, provided the disease is not already present.
• Risk of suffering a stroke: After 5 to 15 years of stopping smoking the risk of stroke is similar to that of a non-smoker.
• Risk of heart attack: After 15 years of stopping smoking, the risk of a heart attack is almost the same as that of a non-smoker.

You will feel healthier, look better and have more money to spend on other things. And in addition to all this, you are no longer polluting the environment with sidestream smoke and compelling those around you to be passive smokers. You are also setting a really good example to others, particularly children.

• NSW Health - www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/health-promotion/tobacco/index.html
• Queensland Cancer Fund - www.qldcancer.com.au/reduce_risk/prevention/tobacco.asp
• Quit SA - www.quitsa.org.au
• Quit Tas - www.quittas.org.au
• Quit Victoria - www.quit.org.au

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