SMOKING

Welcome to tobacco land! Here the men are tall, broad and handsome; and the women beautiful and gorgeous.
Indeed smoking is one of the most common vices in India. This is more so because of advertising and furthermore because of ignorance. In the population about smoking.

In fact tobacco cultivation & beedi making are flourishing cottage industries with a lot of political clout. India is the only country in the world to have a tobacco promotion board. There is no worthwhile anti smoking campaign in India. In the western world relentless campaign against smoking by government and voluntary agencies had led to considerable reduction in smoking habits. Therefore tobacco companies are looking out for greener pastures and have started moving into lucrative Third world markets like India. Accompanied by high pressure advertising they intend to inculcate the smoking habit, especially in the young.

Smoking is sought to be portrayed as a masculine habit Smokers are projected as strong; carefree; successful men, who can hook girls easily. No wonder most of the cigarette ads are in exotic locates. On the weak-minded Indian male the ads really work very well. The warning “Cigarette smoking is injurious to health”. after each ad is to dull; drab and boring compared to glamorous ads.

In the West tobacco companies are diversifying into other business because of reduction in smoking. In India too ITC a premier tobacco company is diversifying into other ventures. The diversification drive is fuelled by tobacco related profits.
More often than not smoking starts because of peer group pressure, especially in teenagers and collegians. A collegian just freed from shackles of school life gets thrill of defying parental authority by smoking on the sly. Some are to chicken hearted to say no to friends. Some feel they are being left-out or they are bad intentioned if they do not join social smoking.

Well! The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Passive smoking is as bad as smoking. If husband is a heavy smoker, wife may inhale smoke and may suffer in bargain. If wife is pregnant, even the fetus may be effected. Cigarette smoke causes increased incidence of bleeding during pregnancy. Women addicted to smoking also tend to eat less and have less caloric intake. Cigarette smoke contains many chemical including carbon monoxide which functionally inactivates fetus and maternal hemoglobin. Babies of mothers who smoke or are exposed to passive smoking are small and are also likely to have heart defects.

Therefore non-smoking is good for husbands as well as for wives. When somebody smokes, his smelly air can effect everyone around him making other’s eyes water, activating their allergies etc. Therefore, do not be passive smoker. Do not let a smoker pollute the air which you breathe. If smoking was as natural as hunger or thirst then people would have been born with snouts facing upwards instead of nostrils.

The only thing that can be done about smoking is to give it up. This is easier said than done! As Mark Twain has said, “Giving up smoking is so easy, I have given it up so many times”. Smokers should endeavor to give up smoking. Smokers and especially chain smokers do find it very difficult to give up smoking. But it is really not at all difficult. With a little bit of effort and will power, it is possible for the most hardened smoker to quit. Many people have given up smoking. If a person makes up his mind and works on it, slowly and steadily quitting smoking is not very difficult. It is better to reduce smoking gradually i.e. reduce the number of cigarette smoked per day slowly then quitting smoking at one shot.

Here are some points you should consider if you are smoking: The first of all is that only you can make a conscious decision to stop. Smoking is being advertised as an adult affair. Well, making their own decisions and taking responsibility for those choices is an adult trait. So if you decide to smoke because your friends do, who is making up your mind, you or them? In fact now-a-days quitting makes you feel like an adult. Teenagers, especially must not fool themselves just because some friends say or because they think it looks cool. They must be assertive and not say yes when they want to say no. take control of your life-style and breathe a lot easier for it. A common misunderstanding is that low tar or low nicotine cigarettes cannot hurt you. In fact in low tar, low nicotine cigarettes, every puff contain chemical like formaldehyde, lead ammonia, poisonous gases like carbon monoxide plus some new stuff added in for flavor and bulk that nobody is sure about yet. Lower levels of tar and nicotine don’t mean the same thing as ‘safe’ when it comes to cigarette. People who smoke or chew tobacco are more prone to mouth, throat and lung cancer. Contrary to popular opinion, beedi smoking is twice dangerous as cigarettes.

Another misconception is that one can quit anytime one wants. Nicotine is an addicting drug and is almost as hard to kick as others hard drugs like charas and brown sugar. In fact addiction to narcotic drugs starts with smoking in 99% of cases. It is best to quit when the smoking habit is new. A common myth is that if one doesn’t smoke much, it doesn’t hurt. Every cigarette reduces life span by five minutes and spoils the quality of the remaining life. Even one cigarette isn’t exactly what we can call harmless.

Smoking damages lungs with every puff. It makes hands tremble; heart work harder; turns teeth yellow; causes cough; makes voice hoarse; burns lips; causes gums disease; causes wrinkles on face; makes one age prematurely ; reddens eyes; spoils breathe and fills lungs and blood with poisonous carbon monoxide. It pollutes worse than air pollution and in time can cause cancer.

Every cloud may have a silver lining but this doesn’t apply when it comes to cigarette smoke.

Some people think that since I’ve already hurt my lungs, so why bother quitting. This is a typical fatalist Indian attitude. The good news is that the moment you stop smoking, your goes to work healing itself, fixing you up as good as new. But you’ve got to quit smoking before the healing starts.

The local unit of Indian Cancer Society or your doctor will always be ready to help.

Remember :smoking and cancer! Made for each other!.

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