Q: Is smoking hazardous to health?
A: The unanimous answers is 'yes'.
In 1962, the British Royal College of Physicians established a link between smoking and bad health.
In 1970, A senior medical consultant in the United States of America gave strong health warnings that smoking is harmful to health.
In 1978, World Health Organization experts announced that "smoking is a major cause of ill-health and premature death; but this is avoidable by giving up smoking or not smoking at all.
Q: What are the harmful substances to be found in tobacco?
A: The most well-known and most dangerous substances are: carbon monoxide, nicotine and tar .
Q: What harm do these substances cause?
A: Carbon monoxide, also found in car exhaust fumes emitted into the air, reduces the ability of the blood to carry oxygen inside the human body.
Nicotine, similar to cocaine and morphine, is addictive and makes the smoker dependent on tobacco. It aggravates blood pressure and heart beat, thereby increasing the load on the heart which is already weakened by a shortage of oxygen. The combination of carbon monoxide and nicotine leads to clotting of the blood in the arteries leading to the heart and the brain as well as in the blood vessels. This normally leads to heart failure. Tar is a carcinogen which, together with other harmful substances found in tobacco, can cause lung cancer, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Q: Would cigarettes with a lower tar and nicotine content be less hazardous?
A: No. Smokers tend to make up for the reduction in these substances by
smoking more and inhaling more smoke, thus taking in the same amount of
these harmful substances.
Q: Are filter cigarettes harmless ?
A: No. Filters do not prevent carbon monoxide and other harmful substances
passing through. Smokers of filter cigarettes run the same risk of heart attack and brain stroke as smokers of unfiltered cigarettes.
Q: Do cigars and pipes carry a lower health risk?
A: Cigars and pipe, in fact, have a higher tar and nicotine content than cigarettes. Moreover, smoke given out by cigars and pipes is more concentrated and therefore more dangerous to nonsmokers.
Q: What is 'smoke-free' tobacco?
A: It is tobacco that is not smoked but chewed or carried inside the mouth for long periods of time or sniffed. It is usually available in soft lumps, called snuff, cut into small pieces; as leaves for chewing; or as ground, dried snuff in powder form.
Q: Is smoke-free tobacco a safe substitute for ordinary tobacco?
A: No, despite claims to the contrary. It causes cancer of the mouth and tooth
I decay)' as it contains all the cancer-causing substances, including nicotine which makes it addictive also.
Q: How much is spent worldwide on tobacco advertising and on smoking ingeneral?
A: Tobacco advertising is estimated to cost about US$1500 million a year, worldwide. This is enough to cover the cost of vaccinating all newborn babies against the six major diseases: diphtheria, whooping cough (pertussis), tetanus, measles, poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis), tuberculosis. Money spent on smoking worldwide every year is estimated ; to be forty times as much, or US$100 000 million (1992 figures).
Q: How many people die of smoking-related diseases every year?
A: Around 1.5 million people die each year worldwide due to smoking-related
diseases, a rate of one death every 13 seconds.
Q: What is the death rate due to the various smoking-related diseases?
A: Eighty-five per cent of all the deaths due to lung cancer, 75% of those due
r to chronic bronchitis and 25% of those due to other heart diseases are smoking-related.
Almost no lung cancer cases can be treated by surgery, and only 5% of those that can continue to live for five more years. Smoking-related diseases contribute to a large proportion of the total death rate worldwide. For Instance, they contribute to 30% In Cuba, 25% In the United States of America, and 15-20% in the United Kingdom. Translated into figures, these rates give 400 000 deaths in the USA, 140 000 in the Federal Republic of Germany, 100 000 in the UK, 70 000 in Italy and 23 000 in Australia.
Q: What other risks are faced by mothers who smoke, in particular ?
A: Mothers who smoke and are taking oral contraceptives run ten times the risk of heart attacks, brain strokes and clotting of the blood in the legs.
Health risks all higher in mothers who smoke with high blood pressure or ? high body cholesterol. Women who smoke reach menopause between one l and three years earlier than nonsmokers.
Q: What risks are faced by pregnant women who smoke and by their unborn babies ?
A: When a pregnant woman smokes, her baby also smokes. Carbon monoxide :
and nicotine are carried through the blood stream from the mother to the .
baby, leading to lower levels of oxygen intake and higher pulse rate. Such babies run the risk of being born prematurely or underweight, and when they start walking may show signs of lack of coordination and general ill-health. In developing countries, these risks are even higher as mothers are likely to come from poorer families, to be anaemic and have a higher fertility rate.
Q: What is "passive smoking"?
A: Passive smoking is involuntary or forced smoking when nonsmokers have to breathe in smoke-filled air. Nonsmokers, in this situation, find themselves forced to smoke against their will.
Q: How is this dangerous to nonsmokers ?
A: Tobacco smoke has certain chemical properties that cause irritation of the eyes, the nose and the throat to nonsmokers sitting with smokers in enclosed areas, such as offices, homes and public places. This is more than just a minor inconvenience, it is a real health hazard. It has also been shown that the incidence rate of lung cancer for women whose husbands smoke is higher than that for women whose husbands do not.
In 1985, for the first time, a court in Sweden decided that the "most likely" cause of the death of a nonsmoker from lung cancer was smoking by his office colleagues with whom he had shared the same office. It ruled that his death was work-related and granted compensation to his family.
It is estimated that between 4000 and 5000 nonsmoker deaths in the USA and 1000 nonsmoker deaths in the UK, a year, could be attributed to passive smoking.
Q: What are the benefits to be gained from giving up smoking ?
A: Being rid of bad breath and foul smells which stick to hair, clothes and curtains; getting rid of staining of teeth and fingers; eliminating the risk of fire to homes, table cloths, furniture, mattresses, carpets, and sofas; not having to apologize for smoking and being rid of a very costly addictive habit.
Q: What advice do health authorities give on smoking ?
A: They hold that nonsmokers have the right to breathe smoke-free air, especially in the workplace and in enclosed public places and, in particular , in areas where food is being served or consumed.
Medical staff, doctors and nurses in particular., as well as all hospital workers should set a good example to others and refrain from smoking.
A "protective embargo" should be imposed on smoke-free tobacco advertising and trading in countries where it has not been introduced.
Young people should be targeted in health education and promotion programmes aimed at fighting addiction, and stop-smoking programmes directed at smokers who wish to give up smoking.
Precedence should be given to public health over tobacco company profits,I whether the companies are in the public or private sector.
People's attitudes to smoking need to be changed, so as to make nonsmoking the normal and natural social behavior and smoking an antisocial and unacceptable habit.
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