Essays

Smoking is growing. You find the incidence so common—every second or third person is smoking cigarette or bidi. Smoking spells ruin to one's health. It opens the gateway to hell, of physical down wall and speedy death. Tobacco consumption can cause cancer of mouth, throat and lungs. About 50 per cent of cancer cases in India are related to tobacco consumption. Eighty per cent of heart attack patients less than 40 years of age are chronic smokers.

It is unfortunate that a habit so injurious to health has so much acceptance in society. Of the common addictions, smoking is the most damaging on a national scale. The glorification of such a habit has to be stopped. But the manufacturers of cigarettes place display advertisements in print and electronic media to catch the attention of new customers. They aim at catching their, patrons young. They say cigarettes and the young are made for each other.

They misguide the youth into believing that smoking is a macho thing, it increases stamina, it adds to the personality, aids thinking and planning and is fully satisfying. It is becoming a status symbol. It is an 'in- thing' among teenagers and even girls start smoking as a mark of their liberation when they emulate others.

Annual budget proposals make cigarettes and tobacco costlier. The anti-smoking campaign wears away marginal smokers from the evil. Even bidis are no more a worker's luxury—the price of a bundle of bidis has doubled. Travelling in public transport is now less annoying— smoking is banned in public places. It is also banned in air-conditioned offices.

Looks there is growing consciousness of the risks of smoking. Many need persuasion, conviction and medical check to reduce or to stop.

Usually people try to cut down on their intake of alcohol and nicotine. By and large people wish to live long and live healthily. Nobody in his senses would opt for cancer or heart attack or high blood pressure. But some of them are outright slaves to the habit. They need help to give up the habit of smoking.

The most shocking thing in India is that the tobacco companies have launched a campaign to enlist women smokers. Women constitute almost half the population. Thousands and thousands of them are single and career women in cities. They are liberated, and have lots of money to squander on things they like.

They drink in public, in bars, and may smoke in private at home. For them an "Ms special filters" has been launched.

The tobacco companies say that smoking is a lady's privilege. This is serious and must be checked. In fact, women smokers run an even greater health risk than men. Bidi's are more harmful than cigarettes, and uncured tobacco is the deadliest.

Then there is the problem of passive smoking. Even non-smokers are liable to suffer. There may be heavy smokers in a crowd. Or out of husband and wife, one may be a smoker—and the other has to suffer silently. In public transport buses, drivers and conductors are found smoking heavily. In offices too, there may be smokers around, who always have a pack or two with them and cannot do without a couple of fags a day.

Besides cigarettes and bidis, we have cigar and hookah smokers. Chewing tobacco with lime and pan masala have become so common and the incidence is increasing resulting in health hazards among a sizeable section of the population. These people are not aware of the attendant risks.