Frightening and disturbing numbers are announced by the World Health Organization every year ahead of World Tobacco Day, which falls on May 31. This year, the organization announced on its website that 40 million children from all over the world use tobacco of all kinds, including 15 million teenagers between 13 and 15 years old who use electronic cigarettes.
The number of users of tobacco products is estimated at 1.2 billion people in the world, 80% of whom live in low- or middle-income countries.
In addition to the harmful effects of tobacco on health, the total economic costs of treating the adverse health and social effects of smoking (counting health expenditures and productivity losses combined) are estimated at approximately US$1.4 trillion annually, equivalent to 1.8% of global GDP, with developing countries bearing approximately 40% of these costs.
This year, the global organization raised the slogan “Exposing the falsehood of temptations – combating tobacco and nicotine addiction,” to publicize the danger of tobacco and limit its spread among all groups, especially young people (children, youth, and adolescents), and to protect a new generation from addiction to tobacco and nicotine products, who are deceived by the falsehood of the massive advertising campaigns carried out by tobacco production and manufacturing companies around the world.
The World Organization has warned of the dangerous approach followed by tobacco and nicotine production companies, which adopt the method of engineering their products to make them more attractive and easier to use, so that it is difficult for those who smoke to quit, especially among young people and adolescents. In the end, these companies achieve huge profits at the expense of a new generation of young people and adolescents who turn into addicts of tobacco and all its types and products.
The World Health Organization called on governments to protect their citizens by banning flavored products, prohibiting advertisements promoting tobacco and its products, making closed public places completely free of smoking and electronic cigarettes, and intensifying enforcement of laws.
The organization said that tobacco causes the death of more than 7 million people around the world annually, including 1.6 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke, or so-called passive smoking.
Fake “masculinity.”
Preventive Medicine and Public Health Consultant Dr. Sherif Hatta believes that smoking rates are widespread among adolescents and young men, because the nature of their age requires them to develop a sense of “masculinity” within them, which prompts them to try to imitate the elderly. Smoking may be one of the manifestations of this imitation, and the problem increases even more if the young man or teenager is among a group of his friends and companions who smoke.
He confirms that the massive advertising campaigns carried out by tobacco and nicotine production and manufacturing companies require massive counter-awareness campaigns to emphasize the danger of tobacco and nicotine, using the tragedies of smoking victims and making known the serious diseases that have afflicted them because of these products.
7000 chemicals
Some studies indicate that cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, including at least 69 cancer-causing substances. Therefore, it does not only affect smokers directly, but also poses a danger to those around them through passive smoking.
Smoking remains one of the main causes of death around the world, because it is closely linked to cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases, in addition to being a major cause of more than 20 sub-types of cancer.
Dr. Sharif warns against being deceived by campaigns to promote tobacco, in its new forms, especially shisha and electronic cigarettes, under the claim that they are less dangerous than traditional smoking, stressing that all types of smoking are harmful and contain deadly substances.
Even shisha and electronic cigarettes, even if their makers claim that they contain a lower percentage of nicotine, the large number of times they are used per day increases this dangerous percentage, due to their ease of use, which raises the rates of heart and respiratory diseases, atherosclerosis, clots, high blood pressure, in addition to cancerous tumors, especially since the incidence of lung cancers increases among smokers.
Dr. Sherif advises smokers who want to quit smoking to:
- Resorting to a specialized doctor to help you quit smoking scientifically through what is known as “behavioral medicine.”
- Exercising continuously.
- Find a hobby and make sure to practice it.
- Follow the World Health Organization, which continuously issues advice, directives and guidelines to help smokers quit smoking.
Economic level and living situation
Regarding the concentration of smokers around the world, the World Health Organization said that 80% of tobacco users in the world live in low- or middle-income countries.
Regarding this point, Dr. Sharif believes that the economic and social situation and standard of living may have a major role in the spread of smoking, because many people see it as a solution to stress and anxiety.
He adds that the lower the smoker’s economic situation and standard of living, the more he resorts to cheaper types of cigarettes.
Reasons for you to quit smoking
On its website, the organization provided an easy guide to help smokers quit tobacco and nicotine products, including e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, which included more than 100 reasons to quit smoking, some of which we will review:
- Smokers are more at risk of worsening coronavirus infection (Covid-19).
- Tobacco has an immediate and direct effect on the smoker’s appearance, in terms of bad odor, yellowing of teeth, and the appearance of skin wrinkles.
- In addition to the risks to the health of smokers, smoking also causes the death of more than a million people annually as a result of exposure to cigarette smoke, and they are known as “passive smokers.” Cigarette smoke also exacerbates the risk of tuberculosis and lung cancer among smokers.
- Tobacco use is responsible for 25% of all cancer deaths in the world, and tobacco users are more than 22 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers.
- Smokers are more susceptible to acute myeloid leukemia; Cancer of the sinus cavities and paranasal sinus cavities; Cancer of the colon, rectum, kidney, liver, pancreas, stomach, or ovarian cancer and cancer of the lower urinary tract (including bladder, ureter, and renal pelvis cancer).
- Smokers are more vulnerable to loss of hearing and vision, as smoking causes many eye diseases that, if left untreated, can lead to blindness. Smokers are also more vulnerable than others to developing age-related macular degeneration, a condition that in turn leads to vision loss.
- Children who smoke are more likely to suffer from poor lung function and chronic respiratory disorders in adulthood.
- Significant damage to the global economy, with $1.4 trillion spent in health care costs treating diseases caused by tobacco.
- Smoking reduces fertility, and smokers are more susceptible to infertility, as smoking causes diseases related to masculinity and weak strength, performance, and sexual desire in smokers.