Recently, I was thinking about a different public health epidemic to smoking that I have never discussed with my stop smoking hypnotherapy Central London clients.

In the UK, most schools, most hospitals, many shops and a lot of homes contain a deadly substance: asbestos. When asbestos is dormant it is relatively safe. But any building work, any damage or disturbance, even just weathering or other erosion over time, can result in particles working loose and becoming airborne. Inhaling these particles can be fatal. Not immediately. But many years later exposure can result in any one of a variety of cancers.

Real long-term effects

The most common cancer caused by asbestos exposure is mesothelioma. This is usually a cancer of the lining of the lung, so it is hard to treat and impossible to cure. Patients are lucky to live longer than a year. Asbestos may have been partially banned in 1985 and fully banned in 1999 but its heritage in the UK is an ongoing, grim harvest. Victims run into thousands annually.

Unlike cigarette smoke, you can’t see it, you can’t smell it, you have no idea you’ve inhaled it. Maybe a school is having its asbestos removed for safety but the truck which takes it away sheds a few particles into the air where the children play. When the children are middle-aged, they’ll wonder what caused their cancer, but they’ll never really know. Since mesothelioma is often regarded as an occupational cancer, they’ll look first at their work history. Victims used to be men who had worked in heavy industry in direct contact with asbestos. But now a greatly increasing percentage of mesothelioma patients, and especially women, report that they worked in teaching, healthcare or offices where there was aging asbestos. As for school pupils and hospital patients, if they develop mesothelioma, then they’ll never know for sure where their exposure took place.

The clients I work with in my hypnotherapy for smoking Central London practice usually started smoking as teenagers – sometimes even before this. It is easier to see their habit’s origins: the things that influenced it, the way it has changed over the years.

The UK’s asbestos legacy is regarded as scandalous by many. Some call it a time bomb. And maybe you, too, find the prevalence of this deadly substance in home and workplace shocking.

So if you are smoker who is shocked and worried by the gathering asbestos storm, apply your asbestos worries to your own habit. Mesothelioma sufferers have had no knowledge and no choice about inhaling a deadly substance. And although you may struggle, you must remember that you do have a choice: a smoker regularly inhales a deadly substance in full knowledge of what they are doing. You knowingly pollute your own body and those of others around you, perhaps even endangering the health of your loved ones. Asbestos and smoking have a lot in common, most importantly this: if the right action is taken, deaths from both asbestos and smoking are entirely preventable.

I offer hypnotherapy for smoking in Central London. I only work with clients who I am sure I can help stop smoking for good so they can feel healthy again and start to decrease their risk of disease and death. Even smokers who feel they cannot quit on their own must decide to take action to do something about their habit. Book a free discovery call with me to discuss how I could help you achieve this.

You can read more about some of the lesser known health risks of smoking, the difference between motivation and will power and why drinking alcohol can make it difficult for people to stop smoking.