Smoking and Its Effects: How can Smoking be Discouraged - Essay Example

? Smoking and Its Effects: How Can Smoking Be Discouraged? (Assignment) This report shows how smoking badly affects the health of the people particularly those in Hong Kong, a city of South East Asia with an approximate population of five and half million people. A general survey conducted here shows that the habit of smoking is common among the people of Hong Kong. It is notable that even children and women are oddly addicted to smoking in this region. People of Hong Kong maintain this habit for a variety of purposes. Studies conducted earlier show that they are accustomed with using cigarettes, cigars, hookahs and so on. This report will discuss how smoking affects people physically, economically, and socially. The thrust of this study is to know ‘whether the people of Hong Kong are affected with lung cancer due to smoking?’ and ‘do children in Hong Kong suffer from the evils of tobacco?’ A collection of statistics compiled earlier has been used for preparing this report. Table of Content 1. Introduction 2. People of Hong Kong are affected with lung cancer due to smoking 3. Children in Hong Kong suffer from the evils of tobacco 4. Governmental initiative to prevent the use of tobacco 5. What a nursing student can do? 6. Conclusion Introduction According to World Health Organization, tobacco is the second major reason for death. Today tobacco is responsible for one in ten deaths of adults in the world. As for a smoker, it thrills him very much for time being but kills him in turn. Smoking is never good for one’s body if it is used daily. There are substances within tobacco can cause cancer and other fatal diseases. The contents in tobacco are generally known as cancer causing agents. The effects of tobacco vary from person to person according to the users’ vulnerability to the chemical contents. It also depends on one’s immunity power. Every day, thousands of people around the world die due to medical complications caused by cigarette smoking. The major illness caused by smoking is lung cancer which can hardly be cured. If the current situation goes on it will cause around ten million deaths every year by 2020. People of Hong Kong are affected with lung cancer due to smoking Public Smoking has a number of vicious effects on human beings. In the first place, smoking is always an irritant to lungs. Smokers always succumb to continuous coughing which is popularly known as ‘‘smokers’ cough’’ due to damage to lungs caused by the substance. Smoking is the main reason for lung cancer. Reports show that around 99% of lung cancer is caused by chain smoking. It is a leading cause of death. Before 1930, lung cancer was less common in Hong Kong as people were not using tobacco extensively. But later on it gained momentum gradually. The chances of cancer get increased with number of cigarettes smoked and the time over which smoking has taken place. Lung cancer is common to men and it stands in the third row when it comes to women. In the year 2009, 3692 people died in Hong Kong due to lung cancer caused by tobacco (Centre for Health Protection, 2011). This was almost 29% of the total cancer caused deaths in Hong Kong. The symptoms of lung cancer are chest pain, coughing up to blood, suffocation and continuous gruffness of voice. In the beginning, one may feel complete fatigue and less appetite. Though lung cancer is supposed to be a disease of the elderly people it is most common even amongst youths these days. Often people fail to realize that they are affected with it until cancer start to spread to other parts of the body. According to Health and Epidemiology Bulletin, tobacco smoking and second hand smoking kills around 5500 people in a year and an average of 15 people here a day (Kong & Ching, 2003). In order to curb the wide use of tobacco the Hong Kong government has formulated policies which through a step by step process discourage smoking. The patients who undergo treatment for lung cancer include passive smokers too who became victims not because of their faults (ibid). The government’s main aim is to save passive smokers who are the family members and work associates of active smokers by helping the latter to quit smoking. Children in Hong Kong suffer from the evils of tobacco Medical researches indicate that long term passive smoking prompts children to asthma and other chronic respiratory illness. Smoking, in no doubt, brings about tremendous impacts on children. Women smoking during pregnancy tend to give birth to underweight children. Sometimes it causes sudden death of the child or can affect his or her mental capacity. Evidently smoking cigarettes and the use of other tobacco products is common amongst the teenagers of Hong Kong. Normally it is during adolescence people start smoking. There are a number of factors that encourage a teenager to smoke including advertising campaign of the tobacco and cigarette industry, easy availability of tobacco products in the outlets, low prices of tobacco products, and the pressure from peer groups. Since children use tobacco from early childhood, they give in to illnesses in the younger ages. Reports also reveal that the parents of almost 48% of the students have the habit of smoking. The study made amongst students showed that a total of 257 of 575 (44·7%) students had smoking parent(s), and 25·4% reported having peers who smoked (childrencouncil.org, 2011). Children with non-smoking parents were more likely than those with smoking parents to consider ‘smoking as disgusting’ (67·3% vs. 45·9%), and to know that ‘smoking is addictive’ (80·5% vs. 70·4%) and ‘harmful to health’ (81·8% vs. 67·7%); more of those with smoking parents had tried smoking than those with non-smoking parents (13·2% vs. 3·8%) (ibid). Thus it was, in no doubt, understood that just like adults teenagers and students also were frequently using cigarettes and other tobacco products. Governmental initiative to prevent the use of tobacco On realizing the fact that tobacco smoking is taking the lives of both smokers and non smokers, the government of Hong Kong passed the Smoking Ordinance in 1982 to minimize the number of smokers and its effects of passive smoking on the public. The main points in this Ordinance include the prohibition of smoking in all work places, restaurants, schools, hospitals, and any station or terminal consisting of one or more types of public transportations. In addition to this, tobacco products manufactures were compelled by law to exhibit health warning graphics on their products. The broadcasting review board of Hong Kong has decided to ban the advertising of tobacco on television and radio. In addition, there were also recommendations that cigarette advertisement and sports sponsorship by tobacco industries be banned in Hong Kong. The government of Hong Kong gave consent for the setting up of a quasi autonomous permanent council for the preparation, coordination, supervising and undertaking measures against the harmful effects of tobacco (Mackay & Barnes, 1986). What a nursing student can do? Nursing students can help the smokers who really wish to quit smoking by tailoring a personal game plan to his specific needs and desires. They can encourage such individuals by helping them to turn away from the pull. If the smokers are availed consecutive counseling and pharmacotherapy it will raise the chances for success. In this regard nursing students can conduct counseling campaigns for smokers who wish to quit smoking. By conducting seminars for the smokers and their family exposing the probable repercussions of smoking a nursing student can further help the clients. The program should also involve family activities to let the parents know how children think about passive smoking from their point of view. Sometimes the smokers may not succeed to quit smoking. If such persons again start smoking, nursing students can help them retry to abstain from smoking. The future preventive programs should inevitably involve smoking parents to increase their awareness of the impact of their smoking on their children. Involvements should contain problem-solving skills for children to deal with daily stresses and thus to eradicate the potential risk of smoking initiation. Conclusion As the results show, smoking involves an array of health problems along with undeniable socio economic and ethical issues. The smokers not only kill themselves by taking the puffs but also cause damage to the health of others around them. Scientific and medical evidence show that the person associating close with a smoker has to suffer from the same physical symptoms of the smoker due to the impacts of the second hand smoke. Although smoking is an important societal issue across the world, the condition in Hon Kong with regard to smoking is highly alarming. There are many who are gravely affected with lung cancer and other respiratory diseases even amongst the students and adolescents. Imposing restrictions on smoking is an effective tactic to protect the public from the impacts of the secondhand smoking. Such ban will prevent deadly diseases and thereby reduce the cost of health care. It will also convey a message to the smoker that his conduct is undesirable and often unbearable. Hong Kong government’s initiatives that prohibited smoking in the public places seem inadequate to address the problem in the present scenario. References Childrencouncil.org, ‘Urging the government to accelerate the enforcement of smoking ban to protect children from the harm of second-hand smoke’, n.d, pp.1- 9, Viewed 01 September 2011, Centre for Health Protection 2011, ‘Lung cancer’, January Viewed 01 September 2011, Kong, H & Ching, R 2003, ‘Helping people: Every doctor’s concern’, Public Health & Epidemiology Bulletin, Department of Health Hong Kong, China, vol. 12, no.1, pp.1-12, Viewed 01 September 2011, Mackay, JM & Barnes, GT 1986, ‘Effects of strong government measures against tobacco in Hong Kong: Medical practice’, British Medical Journal, vol.292, pp.1435-1437, Viewed 01 September 2011, Read More