Ohio ranks 21st in the nation for lung disease risk factors, placing the state near the bottom third in overall exposure risk. The ranking comes from a study conducted by The Mesothelioma Center and Asbestos.com.
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The study highlighted significant concerns regarding smoking habits across the state.
Ohio has the sixth-highest percentage of adult smokers in the country at more than 17%. Additionally, more than 10% of children in the state live in households where someone smokes.
Dr. Austin Williams, a primary care physician at Kettering Health, explained that while many patients understand the health dangers of smoking, breaking the habit presents major challenges.
Williams noted that daily life pressures and the absence of immediate symptoms often prevent people from quitting. “While they may know it intellectually, they don’t necessarily think about it day to day, right?
And so those are just the difficulties with quitting- the stress of life and the sort of lack of immediacy when it comes to quitting smoking or those are usually the big roadblocks that I run into,” Williams said.
Williams acknowledged that the addictive properties of nicotine make smoking difficult to stop once started, which is why he warns against youth vaping and advises people to never begin smoking.
He noted that physicians can offer assistance to help patients kick the habit. Failing to quit can lead to severe health complications.
“Downstream chronic illnesses that may lead to or are a lot they and they are it complicates, everything as far as heart disease, lung disease, lung cancer, bladder cancer risk. Yeah. It causes a lot of, a lot of medical issues and a lot of suffering,” Williams said.
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