By: Syed Razia Mukhtar
It is a well defines fact and numerous researches and studies have verified that use of tobacco is dangerous for human health and causes serious health issues including some deadly diseases like cancer. Thousands of doctors have also established, clinically, the link between various lung and heart diseases and smoking.
Tobacco contains more than fifty chemicals that cause cancer and other ailments related with heart. It also contains nicotine which causes psychological dependency on it and traps a person for ever.
World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that tobacco use (smoking and smokeless) is currently responsible for the death of about six million people across the world each year with many of these deaths occurring prematurely. It causes many diseases like throat cancer, lung cancer and liver problem besides numerous issues related with heart.
Despite government ban, people continue to smoke even at public places making others passive smokers and causing hurt to their health as well.
Under a UN mandate to address four non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the World Health Assembly established in 2013 a global voluntary tobacco target to help reduce prevent premature avoidable mortality from NCDs. The agreed global tobacco target is a 30% relative reduction in prevalence of current tobacco use in persons aged 15+ years.
It is ironic that Tobacco is that kills many of its users each year continues to remain approved by nearly all governments and there is no blanket ban on its manufacturing, marketing as well as consumption. The tragedy is that about 600,000 people are also estimated to die from the effects of second-hand smoke, which means passive smokers who have smokers in their family and among friends who smoke in their presence.
Looking at the business perspective and the kind of lucrative financial stakes that this trade has gained, one can only humbly request the government to ban the trade and manufacture of tobacco products and regulate its ban properly. Let us lose no more life!
The writer is an 11th grade student of Fazil Kashmiri Memorial HSS Chandilora Tangmarg. The essay was written for a workshop organized by Arts in Life Initiative Foundation.
