World Smokefree May leads up to World Smokefree Day on 31 May, which is celebrated on this day each year. In New Zealand, smoking rates are reducing however there are still around 7% of the adult population who actively smoke.

There is a long list of health conditions that smoking contributes to, including cancer, heart and lung diseases, blindness, and strokes, amongst others. Smoking damages your body’s ability to circulate and pump blood, and each year in NZ there are around 5,000 smoking-related deaths. This makes it the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the country.

Smoking is incredibly addictive – this is because it releases dopamine into the brain, temporarily making the smoker feel good in the same way that other drugs also work. For more information on smoking and the impacts it has, click here.

There are also plenty of resources and tools to help you quit smoking. Click here for Ready Steady Quit, a smoking cessation service available in Auckland.