Tobacco alert!

Above one billion people smoke everyday around the world, which leads to 8 million deaths each year, decreasing a smoker’s life span. Many researchers urge people to monitor tobacco epidemic and to quit smoking immediately, due to it becoming a threat to smokers and passive smoker’s health.

It is well known that tobacco comes from cigarettes, however many people neglect the products contain in tobacco. For instance, carbon monoxide. Many smokers struggle to breathe, as oxygen is being replaced by a poisonous gas called carbon monoxide. This leads to lungs struggling to function and making your heart harder to pump. All of this struggle leads to heart attack and stroke. This is one of the reasons why some smokers want to quit. Other substances such nicotine and tar are also released during smoking. Although nicotine is relatively harmless (but addictive), tar is a harmful substance as the stickiness stains smokers teeth as well as fingers. Also tar can diminish small cilia hairs that protect your lungs from infections and dirt. However this destroyed will increase chances of having a lung disease. Would you want to lay around your bed with sticky fingers and teeth?

I’ve conducted an interview with few of my respondents asking them whether smoking should be banned and I got few responses. Dave Reynolds suggested wanted the government to ban tobacco. “I know some people who were hospitalized for smoking cigarettes each day”. “It does no good, all you’re doing is slowly dying, because tobacco is slowly eating you away”. However, people like Harry Kins had a different answer.                           “I’m not sure if we should ban smoking”. It releases stress, whenever you’re having a hard time, but I have to agree that it’s not a good form of stress relief.” He then goes on by suggesting other activities to relieve stress. “We should probably start a club, locally, for people to feel calmer and lighter, a bit like yoga.” Judging from their views it does seem like people are concerned to the levels of smokers and tobacco shops over the past few years.

Overall, we could all agree that smoking isn’t at all healthy. So it is critical is we start to help smokers to quit smoking, so they could improve their health and hopefully improve their life expectancy.

By Layba Ahmed