• In the first 20 minutes your blood pressure, body temperature and pulse rate drop to normal.

• In eight hours smoker’s breath disappears, carbon monoxide levels in your blood drop to normal and oxygen levels rise to normal.

• In 24 hours your chance of a heart attack decreases.

• In 48 hours nerve endings start to regroup. The ability to taste and smell improves.

• Within three days breathing is easier.

• In 2 weeks to 3 months your circulation improves and your lung function increases up to 30%. Walking becomes easier.

• Within one to nine months coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, shortness of breath decrease and the cilia regain normal function in your lungs, increasing your ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce infection.

• In one year your excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s.

• In five years your risk of stroke is reduced to that of a nonsmoker’s.

• In 10 years the lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker. (The risk is similar to that of a non-smoker and pre-cancerous cells are replaced.) Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidneys and pancreas decreases.

• Finally after 15 years the risk of coronary heart disease is the same as a person who has never smoked.