subject: Quit smoking and stay healthy [print this page] Quit smoking and stay healthy Quit smoking and stay healthy
Everyone knows that smoking and chewing tobacco is bad for health, yet 250 million people in India - almost a fourth of the country's population - consume some form of tobacco. People think that they can give up tobacco use whenever they want, but it's not that easy. Nicotine is a very addictive drug.
The World Health Organization (WHO) links smoking to 25 cancers - head and neck, urinary bladder, kidneys, uterine, cervix, pancreas, and colon, to name just a few. Smoking is also a major risk factor for several other diseases such as chronic bronchitis, heart disease, stroke, impotence and premature death.
"Most people link smoking to cancers, but it is the biggest cause of heart attacks in young people with no existing heart disease. Smoking increases the risk of clot formation in the blood, which can block arteries and cause a heart attack even in healthy people," says a doctor. "Lifestyle changes don't help much if a person continues smoking," he adds.
Smoking causes about 30 per cent of all cancer deaths (including 90 per cent of lung cancer deaths), 50 per cent of all heart disease deaths and at least 80 per cent of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, one million people die of tobacco use in India every year.
Despite the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labeling) Rules banning smoking in public places and sale to minors in India, the number of smokers is going up each year. About 10 million children under the age of 15 are addicted to tobacco in India.
The WHO estimates that of every 1,000 tobacco users today, 500 will die of a tobacco-related disease, 250 of them in their middle age. Given the current tobacco consumption trends in India, tobacco-related deaths are expected to shoot up from 1.4 per cent of all deaths in 1990 to 13.3 per cent in 2020.
Most people would stop using tobacco if they knew what goes into making a cigarette. It has formaldehyde, the chemical used to preserve animals in chemistry labs; cyanide found in rat poison; and nicotine, which is a powerful insecticide. Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, 50 of which cause cancer. "Studies have shown that bidis are even more harmful than cigarettes," says a doctor of Public Health Foundation of India.
"Tobacco is the second biggest cause of death in the world and kills 5 million people one in 10 adult deaths - each year.
