“Gone are the days when we would be encouraged or discouraged by scenes of smoking on the silver screen”, says 19-year-old Anshul Kakkar confidently. “I started smoking at the age of 16 with friends in school and there was nobody to guide us or educate us on the subject back then. Kids and youngsters will do what they have do, irrespective of the movies or the exposure to the internet”, he adds.
It’s World No Tobacco Day on the 31st of May, but with most schools and colleges closed for vacations, there seems to be no one paying heed. And so the SMATS, Students Movement Against Tobacco and Smoking are demanding for a revolutionary change for all. They claim that the only way to rid our future generations, the bright youth, from the ill effects and bondage of smoking is to have an additional no tobacco day at a much more appropriate time.
“My son is just entering college and frankly I am quite scared that he may pick up smoking at college”, talks a worried Mrs. Sharma, about the tobacco industry interference in our lives.
“So far we have been friendly with him and have tried to educate him on the subject as much as we could, but that isn’t enough, kids need to be sensitized about the issue on a large scale in every school and college, so that they very well know the serious consequences of the use of tobacco”, she adds.
“Adolescence is a key time to deter the onset of smoking. There is some data that show an increase in cigarette sales in the summer months and also an increase in smoking onset among youth in the summer months,” says Jon Macy, assistant professor in Indiana University’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
Students Movement Against Tobacco and Smoking started advocating the demand for a National No-Tobacco Day in 1998 and in Sept 2010, the issue was incorporated in the declaration of National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH), though steps on this issue are yet to be taken by the government.
Here are a few facts you can share with your kids at home:
- Tobacco accounts for 87% of all lung-cancer deaths.
- Other than Nicotine, there are 4000 other chemicals in a cigarette, out of which 400 are extremely toxic.
- Tar, Arsenic, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Lead, Ammonia and Benzene damage lungs, kidneys, heart, eyes and other vital organs of the body.
- Second hand smoking is worse than first hand! A study result revealed, 24,000 Americans who never puffed a cigarette die each year from lung cancers.
- 45 trillion bidis and cigarettes manufactured over the past 100 years have been responsible for nearly 100 million deaths in India
- In most countries around the world, the legal age for the purchase of tobacco products is now 18, raised from 16, while in Japan the age minimum is 20 years old.
Besides, if these factors still do not free you from the addictive habit, you can switch to environment friendly and health friendly solar or electronic cigarettes, which inhale water vapor that either has a small dose of nicotine or a dose of multivitamins that will help smokers, live a much better lifestyle.