By DAVE CHIBESA  –
A NIGHT reveller puffs away at a cigarette as hordes of imbibers sip their celebrated opaque brew at a township pub.
In the midst of the milieu, countless other patrons mindlessly suffocate but seem tolerant to the outflow of cigarette smoke engulfing the atmosphere.
Elsewhere, a group of youths seem to have a field day spewing out smoke from a burning banned substance as its incense-like sharp scent fills the air.
In some places, one would come face-face with incessant smokers of marijuana at liberty in their world.
One observer was heard to comment that ineffective patrols or law enforcement beats in urban localities had become history and in the process abetted freedom to smokers.
In the meantime, the smoking fraternity has gone to town polluting their chests and those near them as smoke oozes out of their nostrils and mouths!
One pertinent observation however was that the public smoking ban seemed to have been resisted by some proprietors on the premise that enforcing the ban in their premises meant chasing customers away.
By this perception, they tended to encourage smoking while a smaller percentage sometimes displayed the anti-smoking printed warning.
Despite several years of propagating the harmful effects of smoking by spelling out their impact on health, the smoking habit seems to make more headway than before.
Hooked on this habit, little do they know that millions would perish from the smoking orgy this year and more next year.
On closer observation locally, two in every five youths have become habitual smokers.
The habit is given added impetus as it blends with the inhaling of alcohol in various forms.
It can generally be noticed that out of five consumers of beer, four would be smoking while drinking while only one would not smoke at all.
This decade has seen more youths smoking than ever before ranging from 15-25 and the alarming trend does not seem to indicate any decline in the long run.
Wikipedia notes: A global anti-smoke lobby Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) projects that an estimated 1 billion people would perish due to smoking in the 21st Century if the smoking habit is left unchecked.
The organisation has a reputation for anti-smoking campaigns worldwide.
Anti-tobacco use crusades range from advocating for bans on public place smoking to challenging manufacturers of tobacco.
Reverting to the local front, the task falls squarely on the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) which often highlights arrests of drug growers and suppliers in local media.
But in keeping with the rising incidences of local marijuana use for instance, there is need for more non-governmental (NGO) groups’ intervention to supplement the statutory body’s efforts.
According to the 50th Anniversary Report on Smoking and Health, fifty years after the first report, the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health reveals new details about the dangers of smoking as well as strategies to curtail the tobacco use epidemic.
The Health Consequences of Smoking: 50 Years of Progress—offers startling new details about the dangers of smoking as well as strategies to curtail the tobacco use epidemic that still sickens and
kills many Americans.
The 2014 report comes out 50 years after the first SGR on smoking was released—a time when about four in 10 Americans smoked.
In the early 1960s, tobacco use was the norm. People smoked in restaurants, airplanes, office buildings—even in hospitals. And tobacco marketing was everywhere.
The Marlboro Man appeared in magazines and newspapers, children “smoked” candy cigarettes, and tobacco companies sponsored sports events and concerts.
Doctors joined in, claiming that some cigarette brands were “safe” and less irritating.
Even children’s cartoon characters, such as the Flintstones, peddled cigarettes on television commercials.
Then on January 11, 1964, US Surgeon General Luther Terry released the first report on smoking and health—a landmark federal document report linking smoking to lung scientifically rigorous report cancer and heart disease in men.
This laid the foundation for tobacco prevention and control efforts in the United States.
Since 1964, 31 more SGR reports have documented the harmful effects of tobacco use, such as the dangers of second hand smoke (1986 and 2006), the impact of smoking on minority populations (1998 and 2001), and how to prevent tobacco use by youth and young adults (1994 and 2012).
We now know that smoking causes 13 types of cancer and many other illnesses.
Smoking is linked to diseases of nearly every organ in the body. The good news is that: Fewer than 20 per cent of Americans now smoke, compared with 42 per cent in 1964. This success is due to
comprehensive tobacco control efforts over the last 50 years.
Tobacco advertising has been banned from television and radio in the US.
Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws prohibiting smoking in all indoor areas of worksites and public places, including bars and restaurants.
The bad news is that smoking remains the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the US, killing about 480,000 Americans a year and costing nearly US$280 billion a year in health care costs and lost productivity.
Highlights of the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health the 50th anniversary SGR expands our knowledge of the dangers of smoking even further.
The report updates the human and financial tolls caused by cigarette smoking, with disturbing findings:
The list of illnesses caused by smoking has grown and now includes diabetes, colorectal cancer, and liver cancer.
Smoking is also now known to be a cause of rheumatoid arthritis and increase the risk for tuberculosis (TB) and death from TB.
Smoking raises the risk for impaired fertility, ectopic pregnancy, and cleft lip and cleft palate (birth defects) in babies of women who smoke during early pregnancy.
Smoking is linked to erectile dysfunction (impotence) and age-related macular degeneration, which is condition affecting eyesight.
Smoking also interferes with cancer treatment. And finally, the report indicates that second hand smoke exposure causes strokes in non-smokers.
Going by the global picture emerging, it would be timely for local concerns to take the bull by the horns to mitigate the impact of ill-health arising from tobacco use whose chief ingredient is nicotine as opposed to alcohol in beer.