Tobacco and Health: World No tobacco day 31st May

Tobacco and Health: World No tobacco day

31^st May is celebrated as world no tobacco day. This year the slogan for world no tobacco day 2016 is “Get ready for plain packaging”. WHO and the secretarit of the WHO framework convention on tobacco control are calling countries to get ready for plain packaging of tobacco products. This slogan intends to make marketing strategy somewhat ineffective by advocating plain packaging of the tobacco products.  

Why Plain Packaging?

Plain packaging of tobacco products is a significant demand reduction measure. It reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products, restricts use of tobacco packaging as a form of advertising, limits misleading packaging and labeling and increases the effectiveness of health warnings. It can act as a measure of tobacco control.

Why should marketing of tobacco be controlled?

Tobacco is a notorious substance, which contains addictive nicotine making one physically dependent upon it. It also contains several other chemicals that almost affect every organ of the person. Tobacco can be taken in several forms. Smoking is very popular way of inhaling tobacco. Dried tobacco leaves are mainly used for smoking in cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, and flavored shisha tobacco (waterpipe tobacco). They can be also consumed as snuff (powdered tobacco leaves is sniffed through nose), chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco and snus (khaini). This addictive tobacco has many deleterious effects on Health ranging from chronic conditions to cancer.

Tobacco and its deleterious effect on Health

In 2008, the World Health Organization named tobacco as the world's single greatest cause of preventable death.

Smoking has established relationship with lung cancer long ago in twentieth century. Smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to develop heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. Smoking is estimated to increase the risk for coronary heart disease and stroke by 2 to 4 times and developing lung cancer by 25 times in both men and women.

Smoking can cause lung diseases such as COPD including emphysema and chronic bronchitis by damaging airways and the small air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs. Smoking can act as trigger for asthma attack. Even people who smoke fewer than five cigarettes a day can have early signs of cardiovascular disease.

It can cause cancer almost anywhere in the body:

• Bladder
• Blood (acute myeloid leukemia)
•  Cervix
•  Colon and rectum (colorectal)
• Esophagus
• Kidney and ureter
• Larynx
• Liver
•  Oropharynx (includes parts of the throat, tongue, soft palate, and the tonsils)
• Pancreas
• Stomach
• Trachea, bronchus, and lung

Smoking also increases the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases in cancer patients and survivors. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body and affects a person’s overall health. Smoking causes diminished overall health, increased absenteeism from work, and increased health care utilization and cost.

Smoking reduces the fertility capacity of both men and women and if a woman smokes during her pregnancy, she mightn’t have healthy pregnancy. There is an increased risk of Preterm delivery, Stillbirth, Low birth weight, Sudden infant death syndrome, Ectopic pregnancy, Orofacial clefts in infants with smoking. Smoking affects the health of teeth and gums and can cause tooth loss. Smoking is also one of the causes of type II diabetes mellitus and can make it harder to control. The risk of developing diabetes is 30–40% higher for active smokers than nonsmokers. Quitting smoking cuts risks of various diseases. Ten years after quitting smoking, risk for lung cancer drops by half.

Many people are not aware of such harmful effects of smoking and its intensity and amplitude of those detrimental effects and they continue using tobacco products. However, It is believed by the tobacco industry that smokers are adequately informed of health risks of smoking. However, there is significant gap in knowledge of health risks. Health warnings on tobacco products are a primary means of communication with smokers regarding risk of tobacco use. Similarly this approach of plain packaging could play in vital role in reducing the ludicrous desire towards tobacco products due to its attractive outlook.

A message!!

Even though we celebrate one World No tobacco day. Lets work together to make all the days a year No tobacco day. We can make many healthy and may be lung cancer become once again rare disease in the world.

Sources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking and tobacco Use: Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking.  Accessed from: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/ on 30 May 2016.

Robert N Proctor. The history of the discovery of the cigarette–lung cancer link: evidentiary traditions, corporate denial, global toll. Tob Control 2012;21:87-91 doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050338

D Hammond, G T Fong, A McNeill, R Borland, K M Cummings. Effectiveness of cigarette warning labels in informing smokers about the risks of smoking: findings from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey. Tobacco Control. 2006;15(Suppl III).

WHO. World No Tobacco Day 2016: Get ready for Plain Packaging. http://www.who.int/campaigns/no-tobacco-day/2016/en/