365telugu.com online news,Delhi,May 30th,2022: World No Tobacco Day: Celebrated around the world every year on May 31, World No Tobacco Day was created by the World Health Organization’s member states in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes. For this year, the theme for World No Tobacco Day is ‘Protect the environment.’
The World no tobacco day was started in 1987 by the World Health Organisation to draw the world’s attention towards the tobacco epidemic and focus on the preventable deaths and diseases that tobacco causes. The World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on 31st of May. On this day the hospitals and media are involved in the tobacco awareness programs to send a strong message across in the dangers involved in tobacco abuse, emphasis on early detection of its effects and educating general public about quitting tobacco usage.
Tobacco usage kills 1 person every 6 seconds across the world. About 8 million people die due to deleterious effects of tobacco world-wide. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the world and tobacco alone is the leading cause of cancer and cancer related deaths worldwide. Regrettably, tobacco use remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. It is projected that tobacco will leave over 1 billion dead in the 21st century.
Smoking was a recreational activity among the rich and the famous in the 1500’s in the Europe. Tobacco was considered a gift from the creator and tobacco smoke is seen as carrying one’s thoughts and prayers to the spirits in the past. Tobacco was introduced in India by Portuguese traders in 1600’s. Knowing the dangers of tobacco usage the rich in the western countries slowly stopped its usage but in developing countries like India, China, Brazil etc. its usage has become rampant. Currently India is the largest producer of Tobacco in the world and China is the largest consumer of tobacco in the world. Most tobacco is grown in southern and western India which is used to make cigarettes, cigars, cheroots, bides, and hookah and snuff tobacco. Farmers grow this tobacco crop as it is remunerative, drought tolerant and easy to grow. Tobacco has become one of the most important non-food agricultural crop in India. Tobacco is not however simply a health problem but plays an important role in India’s agricultural and industrial sector with vital importance to the country’s general economy. Tobacco usage in our country is overshadowed by the huge economy that tobacco drives amounting to Rs.11.79
lakh cores and in a sector which has 4.5 core people employed in tobacco industry ranging from labourers, farm workers, stockists, brand owners to export operation companies. Tobacco industry reaps unimaginable profits and is difficult to ban the industry in spite of many governmental and private ant tobacco campaigns. Roughly 350 million kegs of tobacco is cleared for domestic consumption in India, 86% is used in the smoking form and 14% is used in smokeless form. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India is home to 12% of the world’s smokers and more than 10 million die each year due to tobacco related diseases. According to WHO estimate, 60% of adult males in India use tobacco in some form and 13-15% adult females use tobacco. The scenario in India is worse because of prevalence of tobacco chewing habit which is wide spread from urbanised areas to remote villages. In India chewing tobacco is the most prevalent form with more than 206 million people using it on daily basis. This is the reason for highest incidence of head and neck cancers in India. The odds of developing cancer with smoking is 7.3 and with chewing tobacco is 11.4%. It is estimated that 33% of cancer cases are associated with tobacco smoke exposure or chewing tobacco and experts conclude that tobacco is the single largest, avoidable, cause of cancer worldwide.
Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals and of these about 70 of which are known to cause cancer. On an average the life expectancy of a smoker is 10 years less than a non-smoker. Shockingly, smoking is responsible for 80% of lung cancers. It is important that people know the effects of passive smoking. But what is passive smoking? Inhaling smoke that has been breathed out by a smoker and smoke from the burning end of cigarettes, cigars and pipes is known as passive smoking. Over 38% of children between the ages of two months to five years are exposed to passive smoking at home. Passive smoking causes more chance of heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer in wives of smokers. Since there is a proven linkage between tobaccos to cancer, the government of India should bring in more stringent regulations of its consumption and slowly decrease the tobacco related health burden. The current campaigns in the cinema halls and media are doing well to send across the message. But this has not helped in decreasing the number of tobacco related deaths.
We are currently going through a bad COVID-19 pandemic. Tobacco usage increases the chances of getting COVID 19 disease, in cigarettes, hookah water pipes, bides, cigars, heated tobacco products as the act of smoking involves contact of fingers (and possibly contaminated cigarettes) with the lips, increases the possibility of transmission of viruses from hand to mouth although there have been contradictory reports of incidence of COVID 19 among smokers. According to
The World Health Organisation studies the smokers were more likely to develop severe lung disease with COVID 19 compared to the non-smokers. Current evidence suggests that the severity of COVID-19 disease is higher among smokers. Smoking impairs lung function, making it more difficult for the body to fight off respiratory disease due to the new coronavirus. In addition tobacco also decreases the immunity there by increasing the chances of getting COVID 19 disease.
-Dr. Nagendra Parvataneni, Senior consultant and Head of the department of Surgical Oncology, KIMS Hospitals, Secunderabad.