This year the theme for World No Tobacco day is ‘Quit tobacco to be a winner’. Around the world on this day there are various campaigns in hospitals and on social media like #CommitToQuit for people to post ideas and tips to help others to quit smoking.
The World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on 31st of May. On this day the hospitals and media are involved in the tobacco awareness programs to send a strong message across about the dangers involved in tobacco abuse, emphasis on early detection of its effects and educating general public about quitting tobacco usage.
Tobacco usage kills 1 person every 6 seconds across the world. About 8 million people die due to deleterious effects of tobacco world-wide.
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the world and tobacco alone is the leading cause of cancer and cancer related deaths worldwide. Regrettably, tobacco use remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide.
It is projected that tobacco will leave over 1 billion dead in the 21st century.
Smoking was a recreational activity among the rich and the famous in the 1500’s in the Europe. Tobacco was considered a gift from the creator and tobacco smoke is seen as carrying one’s thoughts and prayers to the spirits in the past.
Tobacco was introduced in India by Portuguese traders in 1600’s. Knowing the dangers of tobacco usage, the rich in the western countries slowly stopped its usage but in developing countries like India, China, Brazil etc. its usage has become rampant.
Currently India is the largest producer of Tobacco in the world and China is the largest consumer of tobacco in the world.
Most tobacco is grown in southern and western India which is used to make cigarettes, cigars, cheroots, bidis, hookah and snuff tobacco. Roughly 350 million kgs of tobacco is cleared for domestic consumption in India, 86% is used in the smoking form and 14% is used in smokeless form.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India is home to 12% of the world’s smokers and more than 10 million die each year due to tobacco related diseases.
According to WHO estimate, 60% of adult males in India use tobacco in some form and 13- 15% adult females use tobacco.
According to the World Health Organization studies the smokers were more likely to develop severe lung disease with COVID-19 compared to the non-smokers.
Current evidence suggests that the severity of COVID-19 disease is higher among smokers.
Smoking impairs lung function, making it more difficult for the body to fight off respiratory disease due to the new coronavirus.
In addition, tobacco also decreases the immunity there by increasing the chances of getting COVID-19 disease.
Dr. Nagendra Parvataneni
Senior Consultant and Head of the Department of Surgical Oncology
KIMS Hospitals, Secunderabad.