Smoking to No Smoking

Tobacco smoke contains an estimated >4,000 chemicals, some of them have marked irritant properties and some 60 or so are known or suspected carcinogens (cancer producing). Even after knowing its harmful effects the worldwide consumption of tobacco is on rise. It is estimated that every cigarette takes 7 minutes of your life.

If you are volunteering to quit smoking, there many ways to achieve that. There are now techniques to assist those who want to quit smoking, although these are

not available in all parts of the world: These include social support, quitting clinics, quitlines for telephone help about quitting,  various internet sites; skills training; nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and many other pharmaceutical treatments.

Tobacco has been shown to be packed with harmful and highly addictive substances. Various scientific evidences have shown conclusively that almost all forms of tobacco cause health problems throughout life, frequently resulting in death or disability of some sort (usually respiratory and gangrene formation in the extremities). People who are chain-smokers have been shown to have markedly increased risks of various cancers, particularly lung cancer, and are at far greater risk of heart disease, strokes, emphysema and many other fatal and non-fatal diseases as compared to non-smokers. Chewing tobacco is associated with risk of developing cancer of the lip, tongue and mouth. Women, who smoke, face additional health risks. Smoking in pregnancy is dangerous to the mother as well as to the fetus, especially in poor countries where health facilities are inadequate. Maternal smoking is not only harmful during pregnancy, but has long-term effects on the baby after birth. This is often compounded by exposure to passive smoking from the mother, father or other adults smoking.

According to estimation by WHO (World Health Organization), the total consumption of tobacco will keep on rising in the following years. These numbers not only represent the increasing number of people who smoke but also addiction towards smoking. These numbers can be taken down with individual efforts. Because of the highly addicting properties of nicotine, quit smoking products are often needed to aid in quitting this habit. It might seem difficult to quit smoking in the beginning, however, once this goal is achieved the main dangers of smoking decrease, even in those who have smoked for 30 or more years.

We will discuss more about smoking cessation and its health effects in detail in the subsequent posts because this topic needs a special mention.