Did they trick us into smoking?

Most smokers would reply that no one tricked them into smoking. It was and has always been their sole decision to smoke. However, when one looks back it is not uncommon to see the different reasons why people, both young and old smoke. The common ones we all know: “we need it to be part of the group; it makes us look cool; it helps keep my weight down; it relieves my tension; …. the list is endless.

“I’ve asked him to stop smoking many times, but he says I will not understand how much tension he has. Do I not have tensions too? Should I also start smoking”? asks Moushami Mondal (name changed), who resides in a village in West Bengal. Anyone looking at this from the outside can see clearly how this vicious cycle continues leading to ill health, both physical and mental, and a series of effects which degenerate one’s quality of life. The globalization of the tobacco epidemic has been greatly contributed by global marketing, rising trade within and across borders and foreign investments.

One often hears that, ‘Tobacco thrills but kills’. The World Health Organization (WHO) claims that tobacco kills almost 6 million people globally each year, 600,000 of whom are non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. About 80% of the one billion smokers in the world live in low- and middle- income countries. According to the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2013, out of 1.2 billion Indians, 14.6% of youth (13 -15 years of age) use tobacco with 4.4% of them being cigarette smokers while 9% of the youth indulge in smokeless tobacco. 14% of adults currently smoke tobacco while 25.9% use smokeless forms of tobacco. While the percentage of women using tobacco is lesser than that of men, this number has been on the increase in the last few decades, with 8.3% of girls in the age group 13-15 using tobacco currently. A much larger percentage – about 26.6% youth are exposed to second hand smoke in their homes.

The current direct costs of smoking is 1,195 million US dollars (about Rs. 750 crores), according to the 4th Edition of the Tobacco Atlas from the World Lung Foundation. This amount does not include the indirect costs due to loss of days of work, loss of days at school, out of pocket expenditure for medical management of lung and oral cancers, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, heart attacks, infertility and many other diseases known to be aggravated by smoking.