2nd Wednesday of March each year is celebrated as world no smoking day. We should make efforts to understand and acknowledge the reason why we need to have a World No Smoking day. It’s not a day to celebrate. Majority of tobacco users worldwide have reportedly first tried tobacco prior to age 18, some starting as young as 10 yr. Among the Indian studies, the mean age of initiation of tobacco use has been found to vary from 8 to 15 yr. Most common reasons cited for children to start using tobacco are peer pressure, parental tobacco habits and pocket money given to children. There has been a recent downward shift in age at uptake of tobacco habit among children.
Even though tobacco use by small children and particularly girls is thought to be culturally unacceptable in Indian society, in one study as many as 31 per cent of ever tobacco using students started using tobacco before the age of 11 yr. This figure is lower than that reported from the north-eastern States of India and GYTS report from Uttar Pradesh, where over 65 and 72 per cent of students respectively reported uptake at or before 10 year of age.
Effects of Smoking include: Cough and throat irritation, Bad breath and bad smelling clothes, Patchy skin and discoloration of teeth, Serious fetal conditions, Heart and lung diseases. Over the time, more serious conditions may develop, including health problems like heart disease, bronchitis, pneumonia, stroke, and many types of cancer. Infect 90 % of patients of oral and lung cancer are due to smoking.
There is no age limit to quit smoking. Neither the number of years one has been smoking. No matter what your age is or how long you’ve been smoking, your health benefits will begin as soon as you quit. It takes 15 years after quitting smoking for risk of lung cancer to become as low as a nonsmoker.
There are various de addiction programs run across our country by government and non-government organizations. Each smoker should make the effort to enroll themselves through these with the will to stop smoking. All it takes is the promise “I quit” and the sincerity to go through it.
Hope in the coming years we see a reverse trend in smoking patterns in our country and in turn a reduction in various health conditions caused by smoking.