Effectiveness of Smoking and its Prevention - Case Study Example

 «Effectiveness of Smoking and its Prevention» What is smoking?: Smoking is considered to be as old as humanity. Smoking is more related with burning of tobacco. Its use started first through sniffing in earlier times followed by cigar or other form of inhaling in 19th century and finally in the form of cigarette since 20th century which contained the increasing numbers of smokers or use of tobacco. Manufacturer of cigarettes initially projected cigarette smoking as masculine habit, related with health, happiness & fitness, power, wealth, and sexual happiness but on the contrary it led to sickness, premature death and sexual problems. Similarly they promoted cigarettes among women for false images of vitality, slimness, sexual allure etc. causing many diseases and deaths for its use. Despite many studies warned that use of tobacco in any form kills its users and cigarette smoking kills non-users, people continued using tobacco and smoking and death tolls continued to rise. A study reveals that in the beginning of the 21st Century one third of the adults in the world remained in the grip of using of tobacco in one form or the other including rising number of women too. The world health organization estimates that out of one billion men in the world smoke around 35% are contained in developed nations and 50% in developing nations whereas they are 22% and 9% respectively for 250 million women. Women in South Asia also chew tobacco. Recent trends show that in both developed and developing nations, smoking reached peak and it is now showing slowly decreasing trend. Recent studies also show that the educated people are giving up the smoking habit and it is now becoming habit of poor or less educated people. Cigarette smoking is dangerous and is the largest preventable causes of death and disabilities in developed nations and is a rapidly growing problem in many developing nations. The world health organization estimates that every year three million people die of tobacco- related diseases; and unless changes occur, this number is estimated to increase to as many as ten million people within 30-40 years. In the United States, tobacco use causes more than 438,000 deaths each year, more than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, illegal drugs, and fires combined. The economic cost of tobacco use is staggering with annual public prices and private health care expenditures reaching more than 96 .7 billion dollars. Tobacco contains nicotine, a highly addictive drug which makes smokers slave for the habit. It also contains certain poisonous and harmful substances that bring diseases and premature deaths. It is a very difficult habit to quit but if the smoking is the only choice, the person has to decide whether or not he / she should continue. Learning and understanding of many pros and cons can bring a person on the right path to quit smoking habit. Reasons why individual start smoking?: People start smoking for a variety of different reasons. A popular reason why individuals start to smoke is because some think it looks cool. Others start because their family members or friends smoke. Statistics show that about 9 out of 10 tobacco users start before they're 18 years old and most adults who started smoking in their teens never expected to become addicted. That's why people say it's just so much easier to not start smoking at all. Following some reasons can cause individuals to start smoking: The desire to look or feel cool: The cigarette is considered as a cool factor and it is often seen that smokers use it to impress others through holding the cigarette between two fingers and light up and exhale puff of smoke in very relaxed mood which can be judged by their body languages. Peer pressure: Peer pressure can give both positive and negative effects on a child’s behavior including bad habit of smoking. Peer effect has nothing to do with the age of the child. It can be from elementary school, high school or above. Peer pressure is considered as one of the main reasons to start habit of smoking among youths. An individual’s peers could be a group of like interests, same age group, same school or college. An individual teenager does what is appreciated by his / her peers or acts in the way that can show a part of the group. A peer faces a variety of social pressures right from games, clothing, etc to bad areas like drugs, sex, smoking etc. An individual teenager may be persuaded by the peers to smoke and can not be considered as good friends. This peer pressure depends upon many situations and the individual should take help from parents, teacher or other good friends. Parents or adult family members can have best influence on their teenager children than teachers or friends. Smoking in schools or colleges both inside or outside not only violates educational institution’s laws but it is also unlawful to purchase cigarettes below a certain age in some countries. Rebellion: Adult is very important for teenagers. These teenagers try to copy from adults in their family and if they are not refrained by their parents or adult family members for not copying for smoking and approved this bad habit, they would become victim of smoking habit and later become rebellious at adulthood. Parents when ask these rebellious not to smoke but they smoke to show that they are free to make their own choices. Many parents make mistakes to leave this matter on schools and colleges to handle and do not teach their children to adopt good habits. This behavior of the parents make their children rebellious smoker or chance to revolt against them who adopted habit of smoking as an adolescent behavior in his / her early teen age. Easy availability: It is physiological phenomena that everyone is tempted to have a taste of smoking once. Cigarettes are available freely and very easily every where and any one can purchase without any restriction at very cheap prices. The convenience contributes much towards a major reason to develop habit for smoking. Advertisements, film stars smoking clips, fellow friends etc. tempt for smoking despite the warning from doctors and other health counselors for its bad consequences including death. Stress (or poor coping skills) : Stress has now become a part of the life of almost every person in today’s world. Stress is a sign of feeling helpless to solve life problem or to perform any job within the scheduled time or in a way it is to be done. Some people manage to win the situation through their earlier planned strategies and those who could not become victim of stress. Stress could be due to any reason either at home, office, etc or could be due to any reason he / she is not happy with. To release this stress people often take help of smoking to get some mental and physiological relaxation. . Why do people continue smoking?: There are many reasons why the people continue to smoke: Physical addiction: Nicotine in the tobacco is highly addictive substance even grater than heroin or cocaine and stimulates the brain of the smoker. It enters into the blood stream and makes the nerves almost inactive and the smoker goes in biphasic effect which tends smokers to come back or urges for more or to repeat and the smoker thus becomes slave for smoking. The nicotine goes out of system completely within 72 hours if smoking is stopped. Become psychologically dependent: Smokers become accustomed to need more smoke when they are facing problems. Brain dependency i.e. psychological dependency tends the smoker to have a puff of smoke to find the problematic situations. People do become in the grip of habit to have smoke at the time of breakfast, going to bed to have sleep, before going to toilet etc. Social attachment: Smoking habit sometimes becomes a media for social attachment and works like a bonding agent. Should other people are smoking around, a person tempts to smoke to join their company and becomes their friend or familiar with them easily. It is observed that these social smokers sometimes break the boundary of social circles to become a full smoker later. Habitual smokers around: Should any person likes to quit smoking it becomes very frustrating when these fellow habitual smokers around like friends, family members, fellow workers etc smoke all day long and do not give any credit or respect to him / her as he / she does not give their company to smoke. The person slips and likes to have one. The person can think to change and avoid to keep away from these smokers Enjoy smoking: Despite the fact known for bad effect of smoking, people like smoking for fun to enjoy like during reading news paper, watching TV / movie , relaxing with tea etc. Peer pressure: The person becomes forced to continue smoking for on going peer pressure. Despite his willingness, he / she is unable to quit smoking. Stress pressure: The person sometimes becomes forced to continue to smoke to release ongoing stress pressure to do the job or to solve the problem. Copying others: Young adults generally copy the prevailing trend of the fashions like wearing of current style clothing, sunglasses etc. Similarly they copy to hold cigarettes for smoking from celebrities or other famous adults. Main effects of smoking: There is no medical reason that the human body needs smoking. It is self-created habit as evident from previous points. Human body is capable of defending any odd behavior to certain degree and if the odd behavior persisted then it takes a form of certain harmful habit or disease. This is equally true for smoking too. Smoking in initial days gives pain in the body, burning in the throat and lungs and some people even fall sick. People take many days or tries before becoming a regular smoker. Since smoking is bad habit, obviously its effects would also be bad. Bad behavior brings bad results. Many bad effects tend to take the smoker into grip. Following are some main effects: Threat to life: Does any person like to die early? Obviously not – then why smoking? Every person desires longevity, good health and charm in his / her life but smoking makes a person much older, much faster and reduces life expectancy. Human body does not need any tobacco but on the contrary it needs good food, water, fresh air, trouble free sleep and exercise for longer and comfortable survival. A person has to be very cautious to start smoking when he / she has dependents. No dependent does not mean to start smoking and throw the life. Diseases: Diseases are many like Number of cancers including lung cancer, mouth & throat cancer, coronary heart disease and many others which may even take away the life. These diseases become very serious because no treatments are available except surgery for some relief. Sex problems - to both men and women. Men losses erectile dysfunction greatly because smoking can reduce blood flow and pressure of blood in the pennies resulting erection problem. The effect increases with the time. During pregnancy of a mother, smoking increases chances for unhealthy and underweight child, pregnancy complications and heavy bleeding due to rapture of membranes which can cause life threat to both the mother and baby. Damage of physical body parts: Smoking enhances the chances for damages in the different parts of the body including throat, kidney, bladder problems and many others. Besides, smoking can bring blindness, tooth falling off, swelling of gums, bad digestive system, wrinkles on the face / body and teeth become yellow. It also makes bones weak which later causes bones to bend or break easily in older age. Diabetic smoker bring generation problems. Smoking addiction: Tobacco for cigarettes contains nicotine which is considered as highly stimulating substance and leads to smoking addiction. Dangers: Nicotine enhances the heart rate and blood pressure. Cigarettes contain many other highly poisonous and very harmful chemicals like carbon monoxide, tar, acetone, ammonia, arsenic, benzene, butane, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, methanol etc. Bad skin – Smoking blocks the flow of blood preventing oxygen and other nutrients into skin causing bad color skin. Bad smelling clothes , hair and other articles: The smell of smoke from smoking takes into grip not only body parts including hair of the smoker but different articles he / she uses like, car, furniture etc., Risk of illness: Different studies show that a smoker catches some general illness symptoms easily like cold, flu, asthma etc. Slower healing time for general injury: Smoking affects the body’s ability to produce collagen resulting healing process slow for minor and sports injuries. Weakening the sports performance: Smoker’s body does not remain fit for sports or athletic competitions because smoking effects for increased heart beating and blood pressure etc. Passive Smoking: People around the smokers are forced to inhale the smoke both from the burning end of the cigarette and smoke exhaled by the smoker which causes surrounding environment bad. These people are called passive smokers. It is estimated that the smoker inhales only 15% of the smoke from his / her cigarette and rest 85% goes to environment for other people to inhale. Passive smokers face increased risks of cancer and heart attack, breathing problems, irritation problems in eyes, nose and throat. Passive smoking is dangerous for babies and children. Part II - Effectiveness of its prevention: No smoking – no effect, no prevention. Stopping of manufacturing of cigarettes and other tobacco articles can give end to the burning problem of smoking. But it is not possible now because of many reasons. It is obvious that a smoker has to quit smoking to prevent the harmful effects arising out with smoking. There is no definite prevention available which can turn a smoker to non-smoker and it is because spreading of smokers around the world could not be checked. Decision to quite smoking is a tough job but if any person has determined to quit smoking, there are several preventions available which can help him / her to quit smoking and get rid of its effects. Different preventions with their effectiveness have been discussed below. He / she can choose any one or more preventions of his / her convenience to act regularly. He / she should never get disappointed because a day would come when he / she can win over the problem. It is recommended that the person should share the decision to quit smoking among his / her friends, fellow workers etc in their interests for a smoke-free society. Start with general steps of “START” S – Set a target or date to quit T – Tell parents, adult family members or friends for the plan to quit A – Anticipate the challenges ahead after quitting and plan to face them R – Remove the cigarettes and other tobacco articles nearby from home, car, workplace etc. T – Tell to the doctor about the plan and request for his / her medical help Will power: It is said that nothing is impossible in this world. Need is for will power with perfect attitude. Self confidence will win half the battle. Strong will power can turn smoker to a non-smoker. It would help stay quit and avoid slipping back. Motivation: Motivations through different counseling can make the smoker understand that smoking is a slow poison and the day is not far for his / her life end, he / she can develop courage to quit smoking, Now-a-days many federal governments, companies, doctors and other health counselors are offering advice , ways and other helps to quit smoking. Medicines: When a person quits smoking he / she feels quite uncomfortable like tense, dull etc. Not to go back again for smoking certain medicines or nicotine supplements work. The person can consult doctor for suitability, dose, and other directions of the medicines or nicotine supplements w.r.t. the symptoms. Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) can help to quit smoking because it is a substitute for nicotine in the cigarettes. Besides, different drug manufacturers invented many medicines including for pregnant women like Zyban, Chantix etc. which are helpful to quit smoking. Because some medicines did not deliver the desired goods as needed, researches are still on for new medicines to combat smoking permanently. Some stop smoking pills are also available which can be used as substitutes for smoking in consultation with a qualified doctor. Some other substitute products like candy, mint etc. may also be helpful. Water therapy: More consumption of water helps to quit smoking because it helps the nicotine affected body to flush out the nicotine substance from the body. It is recommended that a smoker should consume double the quantity of water than the previous quantity. Psychological therapy: Aroma , a sweet smell / fragrance oil could be helpful. This oil is applied on lips and inhaled a couple times. The smell would help to forget nicotine which drives for smoking. This process is also named as aromatherapy and is a psychological phenomenon. Herbal alternatives / blends: Several herbal alternatives / blends and tonics are available which work well to quit smoking. These herbs also give physical strength and help to keep heart and blood circulation normal. Meditation: Meditation keeps a person away from this world for a short period and helps to reduce tension or stress and the person may not feel for smoking. Exercise: Regular exercise like walking etc. also helps to quit Smoking Educational support: Educational resources including magazine Journals, videos / DVDs on anti-smoking can be referred for help. Different educative anti-smoking ads or slogans on both print and electronic media including ads from celebrities can also change the mind of a smoker to quit. Other support: There are other sources available for support and consultation to quit smoking like government hospitals, medical institutions, research centers, and other accredited non-government organizations, international health organizations including WHO, etc. Their websites and online facilities can be used for consultations. Participation in different smoking cessation programs organized by accredited institutions or hospitals would benefit much to change the mind of a smoker to quit. Family factors: The smoker can be advised by parents, adult family members or friends to think about his / her spouse and kids as well as for saving of money through quitting smoking. Kill the enemy: Smoker should forget about the past and realize that nicotine is his / her enemy and has to be killed else it will kill him / her. Sources: 1. World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/tobacco/statistics/tobacco_atlas/en/ 2. Introduction to Smoking http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=5514&cn=105 3. Five Reasons People Start and Continue to Smoke (And Why They're All Bad) http://www.docshop.com/2008/10/28/five-reasons-people-start-and-continue-to-smoke-and-why-theyre-all-bad/ 4. Smoking – The Actual Reasons for Starting http://www.stop-smoking-tips.com/smoking-reasons.html 5. How Peer Pressure Influences Smoking? http://smoking.ygoy.com/how-peer-pressure-infulences-smoking/ 6. Six Reasons Why People Smoke http://www.havetoquitsmoking.com/why-people-smoke/six-reasons-why-people-smoke 7. Effects of Smoking and Benefits of Quitting Smoking http://www.stop-smoking-tips.com/effects-smoking.html 8. Smokefree.gov: http://smokefree.gov/quit-smoking/medicines.html 9. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/tobacco/helpsmokers.htm 10. Teenshealth: http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/tobacco/smoking.html 11. Quitfgas.com: http://www.quitfags.com/ 12. Hepwithsmoking.com: http://www.helpwithsmoking.com/why-people-smoke.php 13. SmokingYgoY: http://smoking.ygoy.com/how-peer-pressure-infulences-smoking/ 14. Peer pressure & smoking: http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:wIYx1ZB-ArsJ:www.philipmorrisusa.com/en/prc/pdf/peerpressure_Brochure.pdf+peer+pressure+for+smoking&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=in 15. TACKLING THE SMOKING EPIDEMIC: http://www.theipcrg.org/smoking/intro.php 16. Action on Smoking and Health: http://www.ash.org/ 17. Smoking Cessation: http://www.smoking-cessation.org/content/whyiquit.asp 18. National Cancer Institute: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/smoking/quitting 19. QuitSmokingNow101: http://quitsmokingnow101.com/2008/01/14/why-do-people-start-smoking/ 20. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/health_effects.htm Read More