Smoking termed more lethal than suicide bombing

Your Option

Smoking Kills

“And do not kill yourselves. Surely, Allah is Most Merciful to you. And whoever commits that through aggression and injustice, We shall cast him into the Fire and that is easy for Allah” [Qur'an 4:29]

“And do not throw yourselves into destruction.” [Qur'an 2:195]

Smoking has turned out to be far more lethal than suicide bombings for Pakistan over the years. According to The Network, a consumer rights’ protection organization, around 100,000 people die of tobacco-related diseases annually in Pakistan, while the number of lives claimed by suicide bombings over the last nine years comes to around 6,000.
Panelists at a discussion on smoking prevention and control on Monday had a unanimous opinion that until the current anti-smoking laws were enforced, smoking-free-Pakistan would be a distance dream.

Presenting a recent Asian Development Bank report, The Network’s Advocacy and Research Coordinator Dr. Anwar Rafay said Pakistan had lost 5,704 lives to around 332 suicide bombings, which it witnessed since 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.
He said the country currently had around 25 million smokers, while the annual tobacco-related deaths were 98,640.

According to him, National Health Survey of Pakistan, 1990-94, and Pakistan Health Education Survey, 1999, stated 55 per cent of households had at least one smoker but the recent data had now shown that the problem had worsened. TN representatives said 40 per cent of men and nine per cent of women in the country smoked tobacco. He further said the annual per capita consumption of tobacco in the country was 392 cigarettes per adult annually.

He said media and anti-smoking advocates should collaborate for forcing government into implementing Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Guidelines and the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers’ Health Ordinance, 2002.

Dr. Anwar alleged tobacco industry carried out hidden promotional activities despite strict ban. He said recently, his organization highlighted promotional activities of a tobacco giant in the flood-affected areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa under the garb of corporate social responsibility, but its coverage on media caused Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to step in and order prompt halt to the activities. He praised journalists for helping The Network make Pakistan smoking-free and wanted them to do more for the cause.

Another speaker said around 12,000 new children in the age bracket of 6 to 15 began tobacco intake every day. He said tobacco companies should not be encouraged by media even if they did something for humanitarian grounds because it would indirectly promote them.

NEW FORM OF SMOKING : SHISHA …A DELICIOUS KILLER!!!

Recently however, shisha has rapidly gained popularity in Yemen, especially among qat chewers. “Yemenis smoked the mada’a in the past, but shisha is now a major fad in Yemeni society.“The health ministry and official information should really establish a health education curriculum in schools and public places about the effects of smoking shisha and other tobacco products. Kids start smoking shisha to imitate celebrities and to be fashionable,”

“One shisha smoking session is equivalent to smoking 60 cigarettes,” said Dr. Ahmed al-Motarreb, a specialist in heart disease at the cardiac center of the Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana’a. “I advise smokers to stop immediately, because it damages the body by causing wrinkled skin, sexual impotence and many chronic diseases. The reason behind the increase in the shisha smoking phenomenon is that people do not take the health risks seriously.”   Research published in the Journal of Periodontology (Nov. 2005) found that the effects of water pipe smoking are the same as that of cigarette smoking.The prevalence of periodontal (gum tissue) diseases in the study was 30 percent among shisha smokers, 24 percent in cigarette smokers and eight percent in non-smokers.  “Research from this study shows that the relative risk for periodontal disease increased five-fold in water pipe and 3.8-fold in cigarette smokers, compared to non-smokers,” said Dr. Kenneth A. Krebs, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Sheesha Smoking

There is a myth that hookah smoking is safer than smoking cigarettes because the hookah smoke is filtered through water before it is inhaled. But recent studies have found that hookah smokers actually inhale more nicotine than do cigarette smokers because of the massive volume of smoke they inhale…According to a recent World Health Organization (WHO) advisory, a typical one-hour session of hookah smoking exposes the user to 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette. Even after passing through the water, the tobacco smoke produced still contains high levels of toxic compounds, including carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens).Hookahs are marketed as being a safe alternative to cigarettes. This claim is false. The water does not filter out many of the toxins. In fact, hookah smoke has been shown to contain concentrations of toxins, such as carbon monoxide, nicotine, “tar,” and heavy metals, that are as high or higher than are seen with cigarette smoke. Several types of cancer, including lung cancer, have been linked to hookah smoking. Hookah is also linked to other unique risks not associated with cigarette smoking. For example, infectious diseases including tuberculosis (which can infect the lungs or other parts of the body), aspergillus (a fungus that can cause serious lung infections), and helicobacter (which can cause stomach ulcers) may be spread by sharing the pipe or through the way the tobacco is prepared.
Researchers found increased levels of nicotine and cotinine (a byproduct of nicotine) in the blood plasma, saliva and urine of shisha smokers, which is further evidence that water pipe smoking affects the periodontal tissues in the same way as cigarette smoking.  Abdel-Hafiz al-Khameri, a professor of psychology at the University of Sana’a and the head of the Human Development Foundation, said that stress is a major psychological factor driving people to smoke the shisha.“Many young adults resort to chewing qat and smoking shisha to kill time. Shisha and qat help them temporarily escape from their financial and emotional problems.Finally , I can say that Smoking shisha (Arabic water pipes, sometimes known as hookahs) brings the same risks as smoking cigarettes. It can lead to lung cancer and many other health problems. Smoking can also affect your mental health.so THINK before its too late !!!!