Smoking Really Kills!
Sometimes it helps to look past the personal, to see ourselves and our actions in a larger context. Here are a few facts that go beyond the nasty pictures of scarred lungs, that may give even the most dedicated smoker pause:
Not Smoking Alone: Think smoking is on the way out? The World Health Organization says there are 1 billion smokers in the world. The tobacco industry is thriving despite efforts to regulate it.
Suffering Farmers: In addition to the health hazards for smokers, there are substantial health risks for tobacco farm workers, from inhalation of pesticides and tobacco dust and from “Green Tobacco Sickness” caused by handling the plant’s wet leaves.
Crime Spree: Cigarettes are the world’s most widely smuggled legal consumer product. In 2006, about 600 billion smuggled cigarettes were sold.
Emitting Pesticides: As much as ten percent of the pesticide applied to the tobacco crop can appear in the sidestream smoke. The tobacco industry uses some 25 million pounds of pesticides a year. This means over 2 million pounds of pesticides in the air around us.
Tobacco companies fund university and lab researchers to study the effects of everything from tobacco advertising to cancer drugs. Do you feel comfortable that results will be unaffected by the hand signing the check?
Hard on the Land: Pesticide and fertilizer runoff contaminate water resources, and the curing of tobacco leaf with wood fuel leads to massive deforestation. An often-cited, in-depth study shows that an estimated 200,000 hectares (about 772 square miles) of forest/woodland is lost to tobacco farming each year.
They Want Our Kids: Advertisers use Hollywood movies to target children and youth around the world to glamorize smoking.
Women Are Being Used! Doctor Thomas Glynn of the American Cancer Society notes the targeting of women by tobacco companies in an interview with Voice of America: “As an example, in China, about 4… 5… 6 percent of women across China are using tobacco,” he says. “But yet in places like Shanghai where tobacco companies are focusing, we are starting to see figures like 20 or 25 percent.”
You Wanna Smoke or Eat? Tobacco replaces potential food production on almost 4 million hectares of the world’s agricultural land, equal to all of the world’s orange groves or banana plantations.
Giving up smoking is tough, but by rejecting an industry that is harming people and planet in the name of profit, you will be contributing to a healthier you and to a healthier world. Good luck to all the potential ex-smokers out there….you can do it!
Filed Under: Health & Fitness
