Among many issues that have contributed to deteriorating the earth’s
environment, smoking has remained a major point of concern. Smoking is
a source of pollution, and generations after generations, we have been
ignoring the health hazards of the excessive use of tobacco in the form
of 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.
