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Vienna (pte003/30.05.2013/13:14) - 690,000 Austrian smokers are seriously addicted to tobacco and should seek professional treatment, the medical university in Vienna has warned recently.
Doctor Michael Kunze said: "He who smokes is not cool, but ill.
"We don't want to discriminate smokers, but as medical professionals, it's about reducing the problems due to tobacco. Saying smoking is unhealthy does not make a difference. Generally, the people in question know that they are causing damage to their own health."
Kunze said that treatments such as nicotine-replacement therapies with psychological counselling are widely available.
He said: "Tobacco-consumption is the most important single cause of illness and premature death in Europe. Around 90 percent of deaths caused by lung cancer are induced by smoking and the same goes for 75 percent of deaths in cases of chronic bronchitis and other respiratory illnesses."
The professor at the medical university in Vienna also warned that smoking cigarettes was also involved in the development of pancreas, kidney and cervical cancer.
Kunze believes that besides the will power of the concerned smokers, the pricing of cigarettes plays an important role in lowering tobacco-consumption. He said: "If the price of cigarettes went up one percent above the inflation rate, you would have a reduction in consumption of 0.5 percent."
However, with that measure, it is the mildly addicted smokers at the most that will reduce their tobacco consumption - not the serious addicts.
Kunze describes as "seriously addicted" those smokers who feel the urge to take a drag at night, before cleaning their teeth or even in the toilet cubicle on the airplane. According to the doctor, these people need professional assistance.
The positive effects of quitting smoking are very quickly noticeable. Even just a few days after smoking the last cigarette, the risk of suffering from a cardiovascular disease is considerably lowered. In Kunze's opinion, smoking is like a carbon monoxide contamination - and he who quits, stops the contamination.
On the other hand, the risk of suffering from cancer due to smoking remains increased even several years after quitting.
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