More reasons to stop smoking!

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Smoking is an addictive habit that can kill you - if you don't believe me, check out the infographic in this blog post.

Recently a friend of mine was on the episode of the Dr. Phil show that focused on "quitting smoking." Here's a picture of Traci with Dr. Phil ...

traci_with_dr_phil

Being a non-smoker myself, and seeing very little smoking among my co-workers (smoking isn't allowed on the SAS campus), I hadn't really given much thought to the dangers of smoking. But when my friend mentioned that she was quitting, I did a few web searches on the topic and the statistics are indeed quite scary. I found an infographic on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website, and decided to try to reproduce it with SAS software.

I used the same technique that I demonstrated in the art & analytics blog a few weeks ago, and created the custom donut pie chart using annotate functions, and then annotated colored polygons (using a slightly lighter shade of the pie slice colors) extending out to the side edges of the graph area. I then annotated the text & numbers on the graph. If you click graph below, you can see the interactive version with hover-text and drilldowns on the donut pie slices.

smoking_deaths

Best of luck to Traci, and anyone else out there trying to stop smoking!

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About Author

Robert Allison

The Graph Guy!

Robert has worked at SAS for over a quarter century, and his specialty is customizing graphs and maps - adding those little extra touches that help them answer your questions at a glance. His educational background is in Computer Science, and he holds a BS, MS, and PhD from NC State University.

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4 Comments

  1. Thank you! Yes! That was me! Lol! So far....the quiting smoking is going good. Believe me, it is no cake walk. I am now on the patch. The show was aired April the 2nd at the end. Or you can U Tube Dr Phil April 2 teen smoking. I don't want my 14 YO son to ever smoke. It is an ADDICTION! I don't want to be that "do as I say...not as I do parent". The show was a blessing because after I did it...I had at least 10 friends tell me they were quiting with me. :) Thanks, Traci

    • Traci, Quitting smoking was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I smoked for over 30 years. I tried to quit numerous ways, numerous times; behavior therapy, cutting down, meds, the patch, hypnosis, and finally cold turkey. Just keep trying! I quit 1 year before my 49 year old brother was diagnosed with lung cancer. He smoked from age 17. He died at age 50, leaving 2 children behind, aged 9 and 10. I wish you lots of luck with this very admirable goal. You can do it for your family, if not for yourself. Never give up until you reach your goal !!!