Anti-smoking drive has stark message

Five thousand New Zealanders die each year from smoking - the equivalent of losing a town the size of Alexandra.

This is one of six stark facts presented by a new anti-smoking campaign, Face the Facts, developed by the Health Sponsorship Council and the Ministry of Health.

The other five are:

* All cigarettes are deadly.
* Nicotine replacement therapy is safe and doubles your chance of quitting.
* Children who have a parent who smokes are three times more likely than others to become smokers.
* Smoking robs you of 15 years of life.
* Roll-your-own cigarettes are as deadly as tailor-made cigarettes.

Wellington Hospital oncologist David Hamilton said he lost patients every week because of smoking-related cancers.

It was hard to comprehend such a large number of needless deaths, which was the equivalent to 14 passenger-laden 747s crashing each year with full loss of life, he said.

"Unnecessary suffering and loss of life on this scale is terrible - especially as the cause of these deaths can be avoided."

He had seen patients aged in their 20s to their 90s with lung cancer.

"Most patients with smoking-related cancers are 40 upwards - people who should still have decades of life left, but instead face leaving behind friends and family, much too early."

People had a limited knowledge of the harms of smoking, research showed, and smokers underestimated their own level of risk of developing smoking-related diseases.

- NZPA