Smoking; A Silent Killer Of Life
Smoking, a silent killer — smoking is the practice of burning a substance to inhale the resulting smoke for taste is a common practice world-over. Tobacco smoking is very injurious and being practiced by over one billion people around the globe, of whom the majority are in developing countries. Tobacco products are made up of leaf tobacco as raw material entirely or partly; which are intended to be smoked, sucked, chewed, or snuffed.
Often I wonder, that why people still smoke even after being well aware of the hilarious health effects of smoking. What do you think?
It is perhaps the most popular adventure for teenagers, without considering its consequences. Initially, people begin to smoke for the fun and gradually become addicted to it. They adopt it as a fashion, thinking that it is very easy to quit smoking at any time. However, it is very difficult to stop, once you get addicted to it, and thus, smoking leads to many lethal diseases.
Why smoking is a silent killer?
Continuous smoking results in skin allergies, cancer, and lung destruction. It has been reported that cigarette smoking caused 87% of lung cancer deaths. Many other cancers and health problems are found associated with it. Smokers often have dark lips and trouble breathing. It causes mouth and lung cancer and slowly leads to loss of appetite. Smoking gradually destroys vital organs in our body that stops the continuity of this precious life and hence, it may refer as a ‘silent killer’.
Are smokers more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19?
Tobacco smokers (cigarettes, waterpipes, bidis, cigars, heated tobacco products) may be more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, as the act of smoking involves contact of fingers (and possibly contaminated cigarettes) with the lips, which increases the possibility of transmission of viruses from hand to mouth.
Smoking water pipes, also known as shisha or hookah, often involves the sharing of mouthpieces and hoses, which could facilitate the transmission of the COVID-19 virus in communal and social settings.
What is chain-smoking vs passive smoking?
Most people start smoking one cigarette a day followed by smoking more than thirty cigarettes a day. Some people get addicted to smoking in such a way that they need to smoke cigarettes even more than drinking water requirements. It is called ‘chain-smoking’. When we sit beside a smoker, we mistakenly inhale smoke, this is called ‘passive smoking’ which is equally bad for our health and causes several diseases leading to death.
Passive smoking is the inhalation of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or second-hand smoke, by persons other than the intended “active” smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke saturates an environment and causes its inhalation by people within the immediate vicinity. Smoking should be strictly prohibited at open places by law to avoid the risk of passive smoking.
How it can be prevented?
Education, awareness, and counseling by physicians of children, and especially teenagers have been found very effective in decreasing the risk of smoking cigarettes. Many countries have started to impose high taxes on tobacco products manufacturing companies owing to the health hazards of the smoking killer. There should be also some legislation regarding its commercialization. For instance, social media should promote to run ads to discourage tobacco use and limit ads that promote tobacco. There should be proper awareness campaigns for helping people to quit smoking. Overall, as a nation, we have to follow the motto “stop smoking and save lives”.