The message that ‘smoking is bad for you’ is an old one, so not everyone gives it his full attention. Cigarettes contain 4000 chemical compounds and at least 400 toxic substances. The products that are most damaging are tar-a carcinogen that causes cancer, nicotine- addictive and increases cholesterol and carbon monoxide- reduces oxygen in the body. Smokers are more likely to get cancer than non-smokers. For those who have given up smoking, it takes approximately 15 years before the risk of lung cancer drops to the same as that of a non-smoker. ‘The Ten Commandments’ fame Russian born American actor, Yul Brynner, who died of lung cancer by smoking made this message from his death bed; ‘Now that I am gone I tell you; Don’t smoke, whatever you do, but don’t smoke’. How many of the smokers will take this message seriously? When I was attached to the hospitality trade I became friends with a German executive chef who was a smoker. As a friend I conveyed to him Yul Brynner’s message and the cause for his death. He asked me ‘How many cigarettes he smoked a day and what age did he died?’ I said a good two packets and he was 65. He responded ‘No problem, I smoke just one packet and 130 years more than enough for me.’ This is the way all habitual smokers respond when advised of the danger of smoking.According to World Health Organization 5.4 million deaths are caused by tobacco. Smoking is set to kill 6.5 million in 2015. Every 6.5 seconds a current or former smoker dies of disease caused by smoking. While nearly 40 percent deaths account for cancer, approximately 30 percent of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases. The recent findings as revealed in the journal Human Reproduction; babies born to smoking mothers are far more likely to suffer from deformed limbs. It is amazing how people will find all sorts of excuses to deny the obvious. It has long been established that smoking is harmful to one’s health. The tobacco lobby is proactive in suppressing this danger and promoting tobacco consumption. Remember Yul Brynner’s message from his death bed, if you want ignore it, do it at your own risk!
Courtesy - The Island by S. H. Moulana
Riyadh
