Home
Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
Stumble Upon
Technorati
Mixx
Sphinn
Twitter
SphereIt
Propeller
Gmarks
Newsvine
Yahoo! My Web
Live Journal
Blinklist
E-mail
It is to nobody’s surprise that cigarette smoking is fatal. It gives rise to one of the deadliest disease called cancer. According to statistics there are 2.5 billion tobacco users in the world, and India alone consumes 15 per cent of world’s tobacco. Moreover, out of every five persons dying of cancer, two are tobacco addicts.
Research proves that the life span of those who start smoking in their teens and continue for two decades is shortened almost by a quarter. One person dies of tobacco-related causes every 6.5 seconds in the world.
India has the largest rate of oral cancer in the world. In-fact, 50 per cent of all oral cancer patients are Indians. More than 90% of the oral cancer cases are due to tobacco consumption.
A recent report by the World Health Organization warns that by the year 2025, every 8th Person in India will be suffering from cancer.
Despite all the statistics, India has been a forerunner in the fight against tobacco epidemic which claims over 2,000 lives in the country every day. Counseling alone is not enough to discourage smoking, everyone is aware of it that cigarette smoking is injurious to health, yet it doesn’t help discourage them from smoking. Promoting the use of low-risk tobacco products can be helpful in reducing cancer risk. In fact, the superstars of this country from fields such as Sports and Bollywood should take a pledge not to be brand ambassadors for such products. Because they are the role models or the present generation of this country and once the youth sees them branding such products, they try to emulate their heroes.
Stringent laws should be made regarding tobacco control and it should be seen that they are not just paper-work but implemented. For this, the government is proposing to set up a National Regulatory Authority to oversee the effective implementation of the tobacco-related laws. It would be formed under the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12).
Tobacco control is a multi-sectoral issue and in order to ensure effective coordination among stakeholders, a task force comprising of representatives from various government departments, civil society groups and private players should be formed. And to promote and encourage more participation, an award called ‘Tumbakoo Virodh Puraskar’ (anti-tobacco campaign award) will be conferred in four categories - individuals, institutions, civil society organizations and state governments on May 31, the World No Tobacco Day . This will help interest more people towards tobacco control.
Cigarette smoking is indeed injurious to health not just for active smokers but passive ones also. And every effort made towards tobacco control will mean a decrease in the number of cancer cases. It’s not that easy, but everything is possible if a positive effort is made.
via:INDIASNEWS
RSS 
This is wonderful article you have posted, however I would hate to admit that I am a part of that significant 2.5 Billion people in the world who use tobacco in one way or the other. I am not a chain smoker, but I will also not consider myself to be a casual smoker.
Personally, I believe that the reason for most young people to take to smoking are social, they usually like to be a part of that ’group’ or just to be considered cool enough. But once addicted it is a ’habBIT’ that doesnt go a BIT.
I agree when you say, that awareness in this regard is high, but somehow that awareness is not enough. It has to be suplemented by strict laws which prevent minors from getting on to the habbit of smoking, alternately increased taxes on ciggeretes (or other tobacco products) also help reducing the sales. Like for example, In Australia I observed that ciggeretes are not sold without proper age proof (which is like a sperate optional ID), so if the merchant feels doubtful about your age to be less than the prescribed age, he/she can ask for you to furnish proof. Additionally, unlike in India ciggeretes are not sold seperately, so if someone’s interested, they need to buy the whole packet. This usually discourages younger persons with limited pocket money to spend on buying a packet full. Also, many ciggerete companies in the west, provide smokers with a variety of sub brands with different TAR (Nicotine) levels, like say an XYZ co has four different brands, each with different TAR level ranging from the minimum to the maximum, which gives the users the choice to restrict themselves to a particular intake, which may be less harmfull.
I cant say, whether any such practice is really going to bring any change, moreover decisions to quit smoking tobacco or any other substance for that matter, are very personal and cant be forced. So unless the user decides to quit, we collectively can only make it a little difficult for them to continue.
I am on my way to quitting, or so I claim, time will tell what category of stats will I belong to in the future, the 15% which consumes tobacco or the rest which does’nt !
Cheers !
Sachin
http://accessability.co.in