GLOBAL EPIDEMIC: SMOKING

GLOBAL EPIDEMIC: SMOKING

Smoking refers to inhaling tobacco smoke directly from cigarette, cigars, pipes, or water pipes.

Authorities estimate that if current trends persist, by 2030, the annual death toll from smoking will climb to more 8,000,000. And they predict that smoking will have taken 1,000,000,000 lives by the end of the 21^st century.

Tobacco’s victims are not just the smokers. Included are the surviving family members, who suffer emotional and financial loss, as well as the 600,000 nonsmokers who die each year from breathing secondhand smoke. The burden spreads to everyone in the form of rising healthcare cost.

Unlike epidemics that send doctors racing to discover a cure, this scourge is eminently curable; the solution is well-known. International respond to combat this health crisis has been unprecedented. As of August 2012, some 175 countries have agreed to take measures to curb tobacco use. These measures include educating people about the dangers of smoking, restricting tobacco – industry marketing, raising tobacco taxes, and establishing programs to help people quit smoking.

Advertising and addiction keep many trapped in a habit they wish they could break. That was the experiences of some respondents. Copying the way the habit was portrayed in the media made them feel sophisticated but still couldn’t quit.

SMOKING IS ADDICTIVE

Tobacco contains one of the most addictive drugs known as NICOTINE. It acts as a stimulant as well as a depressant. Smoking delivers nicotine to the brain quickly and repeatedly. Since each puff supplies a single dose of nicotine, the average one-pack-a-day smoker inhales the equivalent of about 200 dosages than in any other drug use. Such frequent dosing makes nicotine uniquely addictive.

Once hooked, a smoker experiences withdrawal symptoms if his craving for nicotine is not satisfied.

DANGERS

1.      DAMAGES THE BODY: “Smoking has been scientifically proven to harm rarely every organ in the body and to increase morbidity and mortality”, says The Tobacco Atlas. It is well-known that smoking causes non communicable diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and lung ailments. But according to WHO, smoking is also a major cause of death from communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis.

2.      IT HARMS OTHERS: Exhaled smoke and smoke that comes from smoldering tobacco are toxic. Inhaling such secondhand smoke can cause cancer and other diseases, and each year it kills 600,000 non – smokers, mostly women and children. A report by WHO warns: “There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke”.

FACTS ABOUT SMOKING

1.      It killed 100 million people during the last century

2.      It takes about 6 million lives a year

3.      On average, it kills one person every six seconds

TO BE CONTINUED