Let’s quit smoking!

It’s is feared that following the current smoking patterns, some 500 million people are in danger of being killed by tobacco. The gloomy part is that greater chunk of population indulging into the unwholesome practice are teenagers. The habit that starts merely to conform with the peers or due to social pressure to be a part of the bandwagon ultimately creates dependence, leading to compulsive use. According to a report, by the year 2030, tobacco is expected to be the single largest cause of death worldwide, accounting for about 10 million deaths per year.

With regard to this spreading epidemic the World Health Organization (WHO) took an initiative to counter and contain the problem by enabling efforts to identify and implement effective tobacco control policies, helping to reduce the outcome of smoking epidemic. The launch of this tobacco-free initiative by WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) was a major breakthrough, making it first ever globally endorsed initiative by the WHO for global tobacco control and public health. Pakistan too on November 3, 2004 ratified the convention along with some other Muslim stated from the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). However the implementation was not very remarkable due to sheer indifference and we can still see no changes occurring in the attitude towards smoking pattern in workplaces, hospitals, schools, public places, homes or anywhere else.

While smoking has its consequences in contributing to different problems like lung cancer, heart and respiratory problem, what we seem to ignore is that not only the person who’s smoking is jeopardizing his own health but also of those around him. Passive smoking is equally harmful as non-smokers in the company of those who smoke are prone to all those diseases that a smokers is likely to have. When you smoke passively you are likely to fall prey to the following.

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