Two thosand people will die today in India due to tobacco. India is home to 250 million tobacco users with around 900,000 succumbing to tobacco-related diseases every year. We ranks 1st in the world for incidence of oral cancer, caused almost entirely by tobacco use. One of our senior ministers had to be operated in USA for cancer of the cheek due to his Gutka habit. Although his face reveals a lack of symmetry, it is a matter of satisfaction that he is cured of cancer, and has turned a major anti-Gutka campaigner in Maharashtra.
One wonders how this habit started and spread in mankind’s history. There is no scientific doubt that tobacco may provide even the slightest benefit to human health. It has no nutritive value. While smoking, one inhales 43 cancer causing substances, 15 harmful chemicals and 400 poisons, all in a single puff. Tobacco contains nicotine that provides what little kick that people get of it. It is however addictive and habit forming.
The habit usually starts at a young age, usually in school or college, under “peer pressure”, when seniors get ther juniors initiated. It ususally starts with a spirit of adsolescent experimentation or rebellion, and helps a young person enjoy a feeling of having “grown up”. The occasional fag then becomes a way of life, a fashion or personality statement and then very soon, a habit that gets increasingly difficult to kick. Smoking rates in India are growing at an alarming 7% annually.
The harmful effects of smoking are well known to even those who smoke: lack of stamina, chronic cough, and increased risk of heart disease, stroke and stomach ulcers. Smokers are at high risk of cancers, not just of lungs, but of the mouth, pancreas and bladder too. Contrary to the popular “macho” image projected by the tobacco industry, smoking reduces potency in men and causes infertility and birth defects in women.
Smokers tend to be self centered, with scant regard for the welfare of their families and those around. Innocent children ad spouses exposed to 2nd hand smoking because of an uncaring man, are often harmed this way. They often develop asthma and bronchitis. Sudden infant deaths occur more commonly in homes where someone smokes. Spouses of smokers are at increased risk of developing premature heart disease and cancers. Further, children growing up in a “smoking home” are more likely to take to it in life. Would any caring father then continue to smoke for that little kick they enjoy?
One often finally kicks the habit after a major health problem like a heart attack. By then much narrowing of the arteries have already occured. One wishes it was much earlier. Two drugs are now available to help those who wish to stop. But what is really required is just simple will power and a sense of concern for those around. Unfortunately, both seem to be in short supply.
As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 13 september , 2009.
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