The Fact about Smoking is that cigarette smoking is the reason for many fatal diseases like cancer and stroke. Emphysema, bronchitis and chronic airway obstruction also are caused by smoking. A person who is the victim of one of the smoking related diseases may also victimize 20 more persons who become passive smokers. This is one serious effect of smoking on the society.
Statistics of the bad effects of smoking
According to the world wide statistics available nearly 5 million people die annually because of smoking. It is predicted that by 2030 there may be 8 million deaths worldwide. The active smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.
As of now there are 1.1 billion smokers in the world, if the same trend continues there may be an alarming increase of 1.6 billion smokers by 2025.
The 3000 million Chinese smokers consume approximately 1.7 trillion cigarettes per year or 3 million cigarettes a minute. Approximately 10 million cigarettes are sold every minute worldwide.
The discarded filters of these 3 million cigarettes weigh nearly 20 billion pounds. They create a hazardous waste of very slow degradable plastic called cellulose acetate and toxic chemicals of tobacco. This plastic material takes 18 months to 10 years to degrade rising the atmospheric pollution to an alarming level.
Each cigarette contains approximately 8-9 milligrams of nicotine. The nicotine of 4-5 cigarettes if ingested totally can easily kill an individual but most of the smoke is left into the air thus polluting the atmosphere continuously. The little amount of the nicotine consumed may not kill the individual instantly but definitely reduces the life span drastically.
The manufacturers of cigarettes use number of additives and ambergris (a whale vomit) which is one of those additives. The passive smoker's health is also damaged by the smoke of the cigarette as it contains dangerous chemicals, poisons and toxic chemical compounds.
Smoking is like an automatic gun which may go off unnoticed. Most often it is a slow killer but at times the youth may also fall victim to the fatal effects of smoking. The lungs and other parts of the body are poisoned and become impaired due to the toxic deposits of the inhaled cigarette smoke.
Smokeless tobacco products generally cause cancers of mouth, throat and lung
Teen smoking
The facts about tobacco states that the habit of smoking in teens starts before the age of 18. But 25% of them start smoking before 10 years for the first time. The early habit turns out to be a long term addiction.
The counseling about the bad habit and effects of smoking should always begin at home. This can help the kids, in developing aversion towards smoking and use of tobacco or other intoxicating drugs.