Awareness on Tobacco

                                         An article by S.Ananthalakshmi, Std.XII B, SRM Nightingale School

                          

                                                           Every year, on 31 may. W H O and partners mark

WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY (WNTD) highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.

            The Global Tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. Unless we act, the epidemic will kill more than 8 million people every year by 2030. More than 80% of these preventable deaths will be among people living in low and middle-income countries.

            SECONDHAND SMOKE is the combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke exhaled by smokers. You can be exposed to second hand smoke in homes, cars, the workplace, and public places, such as bars, restaurants and recreational settings.secondhand smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds of the chemicals are toxic and about 70 are known to cause cancer.

            There is no safe exposure to second hand smoke, when you are around a person who is smoking; you inhale the same dangerous chemicals as the smoker. Breathing even a little second hand smoke can be dangerous. Inhaling second hand smoke can cause lung cancer in non-smoking adults. Living with a smoker increase a non-smoker’s chances of developing lung cancer by 20%to 30%. Exposure to second hand smoke can also cause coronary heart disease and have negative effects on your blood and blood vessels, increasing your risk of a heart attack. Heart disease caused by second hand smoke kills approximately 46,000 non-smokers every year. Studies show that laws banning smoking in public places help improve worker and customer health.

            Pregnant woman who breathe second hand smoke are more likely to have lower birth weight babies    than woman who do not breathe second hand smoke. Once born, babies who are around cigareettesmoke are more likely to

·         Get ear infections

·         Develop bronchitis and pneumonia

·         Die from SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME(SIDS)

Second hand smoke can cause serious health problems in children, including

·         Frequent lower respiratory illness

·         Wheezing and coughing

·         More frequent and severe asthma attacks

·         Ear infections

For these reasons, woman who are pregnant are advised to avoid environments where heavy concentrations of second hand smoke linger.

The effects of smoking are serious. It can harm nearly every organ of the body. The immune system is the body’s way of protecting itself from infection and disease. Smoking compromises the immune system, making smokers more likely to have respiratory infections. Smoking affects and causes to cancer of the following parts of our body.

·         Nose cancer

·         Mouth cancer

·         Larynx cancer(voice box)

·         Trachea cancer

·         Oesophagus cancer

·         Throat cancer

·         Lungs cancer

·         Liver cancer

·         Stomach cancer

·         Pancreas cancer

·         Kidneys cancer

·         Bladder cancer

·         Cervix cancer

·         Bone marrow and blood cancer

·         Colon cancer

·         Rectum cancer

Smoking also affects our:

Auto immune system;

Chrohn’s diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, type2 diabetes

Heart

Plaque Build up in your arteries, aneurysms, coronary heart diseases, heart attack, peripheral arterial disease, stroke

Blood

Increased blood pressure, changes to blood chemistry, thickened blood vessels

Vision

Macular degeneration, optic nerve damage, blindness

Bones

Osteoporosis, bone loss

Lungs

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, asthma, tuberculosis

Emphysema

Reproductive system

Preterm birth, still birth, ectopic pregnancy, erectile dysfunction, orofacial cletts

Smokeless tobacco is tobacco that is not burned. It includes chewing tobacco, dip, and snuff and betel quid. At least 28 chemicals in these products have been found to cause cancer, including

Oesophageal cancer, mouth cancer, pancreatic cancer.

Betel quid is a combination of betel leaf, arecanut, and slaked lime and tobacco is added. And the product is known as gutka, ghutka or gutkha.Like other smokeless tobacco products, betel quid, and gutka are known to cause.

·         oesophageal cancer

·         Lip cancer

·         Mouth cancer

·         Pharynx cancer

·         Tongue cancer.

Possibility that using tobacco might play a role causing heart disease and strokes. It affects badly male fertility and ability to get pregnancy.

NICOTINE IS ADDICTIVE because when you use tobacco products, nicotine is quickly absorbed in to your blood stream. Within 10 seconds of entering your body, the nicotine reaches to your brain. It causes the brain to release adrenaline, creating a buzz of pleasure and energy. The buzz fades quickly though, and leaves you feeling tired, a little down, and wanting the buzz again. This feeling is what makes you light up the next cigarette, or using the other tobacco products. Since your body is able to build up a high tolerance to nicotine, you will need to smoke more and more cigarettes in order to get the nicotine’s pleasurable effects and prevent withdrawal symptoms. This up and down cycle repeats over and over, leading to addiction. Addiction keeps people smoking even when they want to quit. Breaking addiction is harder for some people than others

Cigarette makers know that nicotine addiction helps sell their products; cigarettes today deliver more nicotine, more quickly than ever before. Tobacco companies also use additives and chemicals to make them more addictive.

Tobacco and nicotine are addictive like alcohol, cocaine and heroine. When you stop smoking or cutback your tobacco use, you experience withdrawal. When going through withdrawal you may experience anxiety, irritability, head ache, hunger, cravings for cigarettes and other sources of nicotine...STAYING AWAY FROM TOBACCO IS GOOD FOR YOU, YOUR NEXT GENERATION AND YOUR NEIGHBOUR. SAVE YOURSELF AND YOUR NEAR AND DEAR.

                                          `` loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu”

(An article by s.Ananthalakshmi.std.XII B, (2015) SRM NIGHTINGALE SCHOOL. Chennai)