De-romanticizing smoking with sketch and medical info, created by Gloria Poole, RN, artist

"A smoker" sketch by Gloria Poole , RN, artist of Missouri and Georgia; mixed media, 24 August 2014

I, Gloria Poole, RN, artist, drew, painted, signed, photographed and uploaded this sketch today 24 August 2014 as part of my 2 decades as a Registered Nurse long battle against smoking [by others-- I never smoked]  trying to effect change by publicizing the truth about smoking. I worked on med-surg units of acute care hospitals for 26 years in my career as Registered Nurse. In that experience, I had patients to care for who had cancer  that originated in many parts of their bodies, but today I am addressing the lung cancer .  Those patients develop a sick appearance of not a normal healthy color, ad heavy smokers are usually very wrinkled and old looking.  I drew this to discourage smoking and to warn people that if they smoke they lose their health and also their appearance.  Yes, of course, I dramatized this. Cancer patients don't turn green, but they do develop a grey-ashen color of death appearance. I painted smoke into the background of this sketch. This sketch is watercolors and acrylics on 8 x 11 paper. 

I tweeted that I was creating tis sketch yesterday and that another site of mine has been on web for years to promote healthy lifestyles at :
https://sites.google.com/site/optimumhealthisachievable and it may also be located at :
https://sites.google.com/site/gloriapooleRN/optimumhealthisachievable. I had two urls  up for it because it was often attacked by Big Tobacco. 

Also, I saw in the New York Times at : http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/business/international/michael-bloombergs-harder-sell.html  today an article "Michael Bloomberg's Harder Sell" with a very good photo of him and Turkey,  about his personal goals for Bloomberg Philanthropies to make a difference globally to end smoking. I was thrilled to read that article because Michael Bloomberg has the personal power and the financial clout to effect change around the world in the marketing of tobacco products. That article also makes the point that Turkey's new President Erdogan is also an anti-smoking crusader and I say welcome to the mission of ending tobacco usage to him and to Michael Bloomberg @MikeBloomberg; #MikeBloomberg. Also, for those high-powered people Mike Bloomberg and President of Turkey Erdogan if you gave grant money to individual artists to create art deglamourizing tobacco, you would see a bigger change in the culture faster than approaching it from a marketing angle only. In other words, some of the best contemporary artists in world are not incorporated, are not LLPs; are not charities and if you want subway art  or train art or or airport art to deglamourize tobacco, the best results might be to become art patrons/ benefactors for private artists and commission specific anti-smoking "art" . [Similar to the poster art campaigns  of U S government at times but a lot less expensive to your charitable foundations. ]

Here are some medical facts about smoking:

Quote: " Lung cancer is the leading cause of visceral cancer and of cancer-related deaths in the United States. ...Eighty to ninety percent of these cancers are caused by tobacco smoke , most importantly from cigarettes but also from pipes and cigars....For smokers the major determinant of risk of lung cancer is the number of cigarettes smoked per day. The relative risk rises from 5.5 for those who smoke 1 to 10 cigarettes a day, to 14.2 for 20 cigarettes a day, and to 20.4  for those who smoke 21-30 cigarettes a day. ...Ninety percent of patients with lung cancer have symptoms at the time of diagnosis and most of these symptoms are respiratory. They include cough, dyspnea [ difficulty breathing] chest pain, hemoptysis [coughing up blood] and symptoms related to postobstructive pneumonia... The appearance of a chronic cough with or without expectoration [coughing up phlegm or blood ] in an older smoker should raise a suspicion of lung cancer. " From medical textbook, "Principles of Ambulatory Medicine" edited by L Randol Barker, John R Burton and Philip  Zieve, pg 678-679

From the CDC Morbidity and Mortality report for year 2013 : Quote: "During 2012–2013, an estimated one in five U.S. adults (50 million persons) currently used any tobacco product every day or some days, and an estimated one in four (60 million persons) used tobacco products every day, some days, or rarely." And "The 50th anniversary Surgeon General's report on the health consequences of smoking concluded that disease and deaths from tobacco use are overwhelmingly caused by cigarettes and other combusted products, and that rapid elimination of their use will dramatically reduce this burden (1). Additionally, the use of emerging tobacco products (e.g., e-cigarettes and water pipes/hookahs) was also evident and could be attributed to lower price relative to cigarettes; an increase in marketing, availability, and visibility; and the perception that they might be safer alternatives to cigarettes (1). Taken together, these findings underscore the importance of continued implementation of proven population-based interventions to address all forms of tobacco use, especially combustible products that currently account for the greatest public health burden."


From : http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html :
Quote: "Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. Cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans each year, with more than 41,000 of these deaths from exposure to secondhand smoke. In addition, smoking-related illness in the United States costs more than $289 billion a year, including at least $133 billion in direct medical care for adults and $156 billion in lost productivity.1

From : http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/50-years-of-progress/index.html has a download of full report of U S Surgeon General and a consumer booklet that is available.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2004/index.htm has downloads for how smoking causes or exacerbates other diseases including cancer, coronary heart disease, and stroke and is a virtual library on the subject.

This is not a comprehensive report by any stretch of imagination on the risks and dangers of using tobacco products. Indeed, whole books are written on the treatment of lung cancer and entire hospitals are dedicated to the treatment of cancer. This is intended to be an introduction to the public at large of the dangers of smoking, the symptoms of lung cancer and the resources available. 

Copyright notice: this blog and all content on it belongs exclusively to me Gloria Poole, Registered Nurse licensed in Missouri [but before that in other states including Georgia for most of my life]; and artist in all mediums, residing in Missouri and it is covered by U S Copyright law and it may not be transferred to anyone anywhere, nor be re-published, nor printed at remote, nor have domains forwarded to it that do not belong to me, nor be downloaded, nor saved to disk. I, Gloria Poole, own all rights to this blog, to this account and to all content on it. Also see https://gloriapoole.blogspot.com for more information about me and more of the art I create. 

Also, for the record: I, Gloria Poole, am a  white Southern Baptist Christian woman, single-again twice-divorced, and the natural mother of only two "children' who are grown daughters, named Jennifer and Leigh. I, Gloria Poole, am also a citizen journo, personhood amendment promoter, prolife activist, republican, author, poet ,photographer, cartoonist , illustrator, writer, blogger, U S citizen born in the state of Georgia, University of Georgia alumna, a former TV producer; and I was or am in the International Who's Who . I am not an employee of anyone and draw, sketch, paint, blog, photograph, tweet from my own apt for my own purposes.  You can follow me on twitter on the prolife / personhood causes on these twitter accounts of mine: @ProlifeNurse; @personhood1; and on my name twitter accounts at : @gloriapoole; @gloria_poole; and @Tartan_Bliss. I categorize the topics I tweet on by subject matter so they are not conformed tweets. My twitter accounts @gloriapoole and @gloria_poole tend to be about art I create and or commentary or news to distribute. the two prolife twitters are to promote the protection of human life by all governments and people. And my @Tartan_Bliss and 1 other twitter that I do not advertise as mine, are for global efforts of mine to teach public health, build an artist's reputation for myself, and promote any cause worthwhile to improve the human race, including publishing relevant scriptures at times.  

 I removed the Pappas surname from my name forevermore at the time of final divorce decree from male DBP of Colorado in Oct 2007, and I resumed my full maiden name including my born with surname of Poole at the same time and that is public record. You can read more of those years I lived in Colorado on my blog in my former married name [second marriage that ended in divorce in Oct 2007 ] at https;//gloriapoolepappas.blogspot.com.
Gloria Poole, RN, artist; gloriapoole.RN; gloriapooleRN in which the RN is standard abbreviation for Registered Nurse; gloriapoole; gloria-poole; gloria.poole; artist-gloriapoole; photo-by-gloriapoole; cartooning-by-gloriapoole; @gloriapoole gloriapoole.RN; gloriapoole_RN; gloria0817; gpoole817; and other variations of my real born with, legal name of Gloria Poole; at my own private apt in Missouri which is not shared with anyone,[meaning no one is authorized to login to any account of mine but me]  on 24 August 2014, at 8:11am. Update by me Gloria  same day at 8:59 am to add link to article for public and to correct/ clarify typos and words in wrong places.