Smoking is enormously destructive to our health. There’s no safe way to smoke. Replacing cigarette with pipes or hookah etc. is never by any means a safe alternative and won’t help avoid the health risks associated with tobacco products. Cigarettes contain many ingredients and on burning, generate more than 4,000 chemicals, and likely cause cancer according to the American Lung Association. Cigars and tobacco used in pipes and hookahs also contain many of the same ingredients. According to popular Cancer Institutes, cigars have a higher level of carcinogens, toxins, and tar than cigarettes. There is also a myth that the water absorbs the toxins from the smoke rendering it safe for the smoker. On the contrary, the smoke that emerges from the water bowl has several toxicants known to cause lung cancer, heart diseases and other diseases. In fact, a hookah smoking session may expose the smoker to more smoke than over a longer period of time than cigarette thus increasing the hazards by many folds. Hookah is also mostly used by groups, with the same mouthpiece passed from person to person, which may not even be cleaned properly. It thus risks the transmission of infectious diseases like tuberculosis, lung infections, several viral infections, stomach ulcers etc. Some sweetened and flavored nontobacco products are also used for smoking. However although they do not contain tobacco but the smoke from both preparations contain carbon monoxide and other toxic agents known to increase the risks for smoking-related cancers, heart disease, and lung disease. The concept of e-cigarettes also came to the forefront but never without any challenges and ethical considerations. A Californian health chief recently claimed that e-cigs are a “community health threat”. Any teenager who uses an e-cig faces a risk of harming their BRAIN development. E-cigarettes contain nicotine and other harmful chemicals, and the nicotine in them is as addictive as the nicotine in cigarettes. Smoking produces disastrous effect on nervous system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system, skin, hair and nails, Digestive, sexuality and reproductive system etc. Cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use worldwide. Other tobacco products include waterpipe tobacco, various smokeless tobacco products, cigars, cigarillos, roll-yourown tobacco, pipe tobacco, bidis etc. Smoking leads to a bigger hole in finances. One recent study reported that a 30-year-old who smokes five cigarettes a day would lose over Rs 1 crore due to the habit by the time he is 60. Cigarettes are priced around Rs 10-15, but it assumed a price of Rs 12 per stick. If a person smokes five cigarettes a day, he spends Rs 60 daily — or Rs 1,800 a month. However, this is not a static cost. Cigarette prices have risen by an average 20% every year in the past years, and will keep rising every year as taxes on tobacco products go up. The study assumed a more conservative rise of 8% in cigarette prices per year. Calculated over a period of 30 years, the smoker will spend Rs 24.47 lakh on cigarettes. Now comes the interesting part. If the money spent on cigarettes was instead invested every month to earn 9% returns a year, it would grow to Rs 69.23 lakh in 30 years. The next big cost is the higher medical expenses that smokers incur due to poor health and it is assumed that a smoker will spend an average of Rs 400 a month on medical expenses which will keep rising over the years as Medical inflation is very high compared to consumer inflation. Prices of drugs, doctor’s consultation charges and diagnostic charges are rising at nearly 15%. Assuming a 12% rise in these costs per year, a smoker will spend Rs 11.59 lakh over a 30-year period. If this money was invested to earn 9% returns, it would grow to Rs 26.70 lakh in 30 years (A report by Economic Times Wealth). “Tobacco pandemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million people a year around the world. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second- hand smoke. Over 80% of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest. Tobacco use contributes to poverty by diverting household spending from basic needs such as food and shelter to tobacco” (A recent report by World Health Organisation). Many researches although without high facts, consider passive smoking more harmful than active smoking. If so, whom we should blame- the production companies, the Govt. bodies, the smokers or the victim. I am not the smoker myself but still at the suffering end and it is debatable and attention seeking. In India, legislations and the awareness campaigns for the tobacco hazards have been the routine now. In 2008 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare notified the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008 by which smoking in public places was prohibited. Warning labels on cigarette packs, which were introduced in the USA in 1966, are often one of the first tobacco control initiatives. Indian companies have been mandated to keep 85 percent warnings on the packs including the text and graphics. Increasing taxes and fines are also utilized as a good measure to control the consumption. But there is need for more honest and perseverant efforts. The contributions to check this pandemic are required from all sections of the society and at all levels. School programmes and parental and family seriousness are often one of the first approaches to control tobacco addiction. Teachers who are smokers themselves must give up otherwise they will be involved in providing the wrong lessons. Parental and family smoking to a higher extent can result in children picking up smoking. A health survey showed that 50% of youth smokers had at least one parent who smoked. Families must establish homes as much as possible the smoke-free places. Do not smoke, if possible, or at least provide an anti-smoking education. Disciplining students is a necessary step and possible when teachers and parents are non-smokers and be supportive of the anti-tobacco programmes. High emphasis must be laid on helping to teach the smoker how to quit and then how to stay off. Efforts must increase to engage teachers, youth workers and counsellors in promoting a tobacco- free lifestyle in the society. Let us pledge to save our society from this menace and “Say No to Tobacco”.
(Dr. Shahid Amin Trali is Assistant Professor, School of Management, ITM University Gwalior, Youth Ambassador, IYS, and a Regular Columnist for Kashmir Horizon. [email protected]
