TOBACCO is the epidemic of the 20th century. Every ten seconds, somewhere in the world tobacco kills a person. If the current smoking trend continues, figure will increase to one tobacco-related death every three seconds. Longtime smokers have a death rate which is about three times higher than non-smokers.
Tobacco products are known to produce over two dozen diseases such as cancers of the lungs, lips, pharynx, pancreas, lung trachea, urinary bladder, and bronchitis, cardiac vascular diseases, rheumatic heart diseases, hypertension, respiratory diseases, TB, asthma in the new born, low birth weights.
WHO estimates that by the end of this year, tobacco would have caused 70 million deaths in the develop countries. And about 12.5 per cent of all deaths are caused by tobacco. A great majority of smokers develop the habit before the age of 15 and die in their 40s, states a research. A large number of children exposed to parental smoking are found to cultivate smoking habits between the ages of 11 and 12.
In Asian countries, tobacco is not only smoked but it is also chewed. The custom of smoking tobacco originated with the Indians of the Western hemisphere, probably as early as in one hundred A.D. At first, tobacco was used to perform religious rituals but at the end of the 13th century, tobacco making and smoking became a common practice. Europeans first learned of smoking when it was used in the West Indies by the members of the crew of Columbus in November 1492. The Indians also used tobacco as snuff. They inhaled it through a hollow Y-shaped piece of cane by applying the forked ends to the nostrils and placing the other end close to the powdered tobacco. They named the tool ‘Tobago’, which was altered by the Spaniards to tobacco.
Then Spain undertook the cultivation of tobacco. They laid tobacco plantation in 1535 and it became popular in Europe. The use of snuff became fashionable in the court of Catherine de Medias, the queen of France. In 1561, the queen of France tried it as a remedy for her migraine. Jena Nicot, her ambassador suggested she use this stuff and it was in his honour that the tobacco plant was later given the botanical name ‘nicotania’ and the substance was known as ‘nicotine’. In 1575, the Spaniards had virtual monopoly of the European market. Then the Portuguese began to grow it. The Dutch entered into competition and so rapid was the spread of smoking that by the 17th century, the use of tobacco spread worldwide, but some rulers did not favour tobacco. Royal prohibition rules were laid and punishments, as harsh as death penalties were awarded. In a research conducted in Pakistan, drug addicts were asked if smoking cigarettes lead them to hard drugs — 86 per cent replied in the affirmative. Another study conducted by Citizen Drug Watch Society states that 96 per cent of adolescent addicts began their addiction with cigarettes as a pressure from the peer group, 81 per cent of the total respondents spent up to Rs30 daily on cigarettes, states Dr Saleem Azam in his report.
Cigarettes are made of hydrogen, carbon, Phenol isoprenoid, steroid, sterols and other poisonous chemicals. It has 60 per cent gas and 40 per cent liquid. When a person smokes a cigarette, a brownish substance known as tar deposits in the body. One cigarette has about 40 milligram of tar in it, which is one of the main causative factors of cancer. The nicotine in cigarettes yield carbon, nitrogen and monoxides, and all these poisonous gases inhaled, begin to deposit in different organs of the body. People or children who do not smoke but inhale the smoke are equally effected.
Our brain is the best gift given to us by God. When a cigarette is smoked, 2.5 milligram reaches the brain and activates the brain cells. The smoker feels relieved and charged but within half an hour, the nicotine and monoxide effect the brain, lungs and the respiratory system.
In a study conducted on pilots, it was found that pilots who smoke are not able to take quick decisions on immediate problems that occur during flights as compared to the pilots who were non-smokers. Besides this cigarette also lowers the IQ of smokers, as well as of children who inhale the smoke. Pregnant women who smoke create serious problems for the fetus as smoke and the toxins enter into the blood stream of the fetus. Smokers are more likely to give birth to premature babies. The babies have respiratory and cardiovascular problems. Even the exposure of pregnant women, who do not smoke, to the cigarette smoke is seen to cause harmful effects the unborn child.
Tobacco smoking causes more harm, to the health of children than the smoke omitted by buses and other vehicles. Smoke omitted by the smouldering tip of cigarette is more toxic then any other toxins. Exposure to even a small amount of carcinogen to children causes serious problems as they have smaller airways and they breathe rapidly, and have proportionally more lung area than adults. Cigarette toxins deprive the body cells of oxygen and is readily absorb in the body. In fact, cigarette is a killer in disguise.
TOBACCO is the epidemic of the 20th century. Every ten seconds, somewhere in the world tobacco kills a person. If the current smoking trend continues, figure will increase to one tobacco-related death every three seconds. Longtime smokers have a death rate which is about three times higher than non-smokers.
