The ills of smoking

Tuesday, May 5 2009

Loss, damage, pain and suffering are just some of the afflictions imposed on society by the smoking of cigarettes, according to Dr Anesa Ahamad, who was the feature speaker at yesterday’s Public Education forum in good health, held at the Marriott Hotel, Invaders Bay.

Ahamad spoke about the ills of smoking which she said would eventually require an individual to spend over $500,000 to have “even a chance of survival”.

According to Ahamad, smoking leads to cancers, clots and other damages to the body which often impairs function, and in many cases lead to death. By causing loss of life, money and value, Ahamad said smoking causes loss to the entire nation.

She explained that each cigarette contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including pesticides that are banned in certain countries. As a result, she said smoking affects every part of the body It can lead to cancers which have been marked to steadily increase after 2010.

Not only the smoker is infected by the practice of cigarette smoking. According to Ahamad, secondhand smoke is very dangerous since the smoke from the burning tips of the cigarette as well as what is being exhaled by the smoker contains over 250 toxic chemicals. These chemicals are harmful to the non-smoker since they increase the risk of developing cancer-related diseases by as much as 30 percent. It is even more dangerous to children since it has been found to severely decrease lung development.

Ahamad warned that at the present rate, smoking related deaths would rise from the estimated 100 million lives in the last century to an alarming pandemic of one billion lives in the next century. She said TT was at a high risk as statistics have shown that TT accounts for 21 percent of cigarette consumption in the region.

To curb the rise of cigarette smoking in Trinidad and Tobago, TT Cancer Society tobacco control project officer Dominique Monteil called for the intervention of the 2004 government ratified Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).