Opinion
Quit smoking: Save lives
Dr. DHANUSHKA DISSANAYAKA
Author of the book ‘Nikotin Lolithwaya
Suwa Kirime Pahasu Maga’
Tobacco smoke contains many chemicals that are harmful to both smokers and nonsmokers. Of the more than 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, at least 250 are known to be harmful, including hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. Among the 250 known harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke, at least 69 can cause cancer. Among those, Nicotine is the poisonous chemical that addicts smokers to tobacco use throughout their lifetime.
Still, more than 6000 children (10-14 years old) and 1685000 adults (15+ years old) continue to use tobacco each day. WHO estimates deaths caused annually in Sri Lanka due to smoking as 12,351 or 10% of all deaths; the cost to the Sri Lankan economy due to premature deaths and disabilities by tobacco smoking is much higher than the tax revenue from tobacco. Most people start at the age of 20 years, increasing the risk of heart disease in younger people. Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) contribute to 70% of deaths in Sri Lanka, and Tobacco Smoking is recognized as one of the leading causes.
Design changes and chemical additives introduced by tobacco companies in recent decades, have made cigarettes more addictive, more attractive to kids, and even more deadly, according to a report issued by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The report, titled “Designed for Addiction”, details how tobacco companies purposely design cigarettes to make tobacco smoke smoother, less harsh, and more appealing to new users, especially kids, and to create and sustain addiction to nicotine. Tobacco companies have made these changes without regard for the health impact, and have increased smokers’ risk of developing lung cancer.
Most current smokers are smoking as a habit and due to pleasure. The most reported experience across youth groups was an “Unpleasant experience”. Unpleasant experiences reported were cough, headache, burning sensation, bad smell, etc. The next most reported experience in all was “Nothing”, which means they have not felt anything special during first use. A pleasant experience was reported by less than 10% of the respondents.
Despite strong evidence that quitting both smoked and smokeless tobacco helps to immediately reduce the risk of Cardiovascular Diseases, few tobacco users are quitting, requiring more programmatic effort. Quit attempts by current smokers is 51.8%
Quitting immediately reduces the risk of heart attack and/or stroke. It helps even if a person has already had a heart attack and/or stroke, irrespective of his/her age. With the wide range of counselling services, self-help materials and medicines available today, smokers have more tools than ever to help them quit successfully. Tobacco addiction has both a psychological and a physical component. For most people, the best way to quit will be some combination of medicine, a method to change personal habits, and emotional support. Some people can quit on their own, without the help of others or the use of medicines. But for many smokers, it can be hard to break the social and emotional ties to smoking, while getting over nicotine withdrawal symptoms at the same time. People who use counselling to stop smoking at twice the rate of those who don’t get this type of help. With guidance from a counsellor, quitters can avoid common mistakes that may self-destruct a quit attempt. Many former smokers say a support network of family and friends was also very important during their quitting attempt. Other people who may offer support and encouragement are co-workers, family doctors, and members of support groups for quitters.
Stop smoking programs are designed to help smokers recognise and cope with problems that come up during quitting and to provide support and encouragement in staying quit. Studies have shown that the best programs will include either individual or group counselling. In general, the more intense the programme, the greater the likelihood of success. For example, the intensity may be increased by having more or longer sessions or by increasing the number of weeks over which the sessions are given.
Among those who have quit smoking during the youth period (15-24 years) have done it due to ‘dislike’ or considering it as a ‘useless’ act more than other reasons. However, among those who quit smoking beyond age 40 years, most have done it due to ‘health concerns’.
The Easy Method of quitting is this: initially to forget the reasons we’d like to stop, to face the cigarette problem, and to ask ourselves the following questions:
1 What is it doing for me?
2 Do I actually enjoy it?
3 Do I really need to go through life paying through the nose just to keep this cancer stick in my mouth and suffocate myself?
The beautiful truth is that it does absolutely nothing for you at all. There are not any advantages from smoking. The only advantage it ever had was the social ‘plus’; nowadays even smokers themselves regard it as an antisocial habit. Most smokers find it necessary to rationalise why they smoke, but the reasons are all fallacies and illusions. When these fallacies and illusions are removed from your mind, you will realise that there is nothing to give up. Not only is there nothing to give up, but there are marvellous, positive gains from being a non-smoker; and health and money are only two of these gains. Once the illusion that life will never be quite as enjoyable without the cigarette is removed, once you realise that not only is life just as enjoyable without it but infinitely more so, once the feeling of being deprived or of missing out is eradicated, then we can go back to reconsider the health and money – and the dozens of other reasons for stopping smoking. These realizations will become positive additional aids, to help you achieve what you really desire to enjoy the whole of your life – free from the slavery of the weed.