I walked through a cloud of tutti-frutti smelling smoke the other day, and it got me wondering about e-cigarettes. Are they safe? Are the bad for you? Why do they smell like fruit? So, I spoke with Leslie Gibson, occupational therapist and member of Sunnybrook's Smoking Cessation Committee, to answer some common questions about e-cigarettes.

I've heard before that smoking hookah is fine for your health and not at all like smoking cigarettes. To set the record straight and find out how hookah smoking can affect our health, I spoke to Bonnie Bristow, a Sunnybrook radiation therapist and leader on the Smoking Cessation Team.

Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of changes in the lens of your eye, resulting in cataracts... It triples the risk of age-related macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness over 65 years old. And it also increases the risk of glaucoma, another leading risk of blindness.

It is important to know that unlike other types of cancers, lung cancer doesn't show symptoms until in much later stages. This means that by the time an individual begins to notice changes to his or her health, the cancer has significantly advanced, often making treatment more complex. However, there is still hope.

I may not be at my preferred weight, and some days I may feel stressed and anxious, but my family is there for me, and I will be there for them: for my loving husband, my children and someday, their children. Quitting has increased my chances of being around for many more Mother's Days to come.

It was the spring of 2005, I was an overweight smoker and on the fast track to an early grave. I was 23-years-old, weighed 260 pounds and smoked a pack a day. My eating habits were poor with little to no exercise. Changes had to be made.