Many people are aware of the great dangers that
cigarette smoking pose to the lives of the people, especially children, who are
susceptible to the hazards of smoking due to their tender lungs.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO),
tobacco use killed 100 million people in the 20th century and this century, it
could kill up to 1 billion.
About 5.4 million people die yearly from smoking
and if left unchecked the causality could rise to more than 10 million deaths a
year, as it is estimated that one person die every seven seconds somewhere
around the world due to tobacco use.
As for the danger of second hand smoke, it has
been established that for every eight who dies, one innocent bystander also
dies from second hand smoke and if one is exposed to the tobacco smoke for
about two hours, then he or she has smoked an equivalent of four cigarettes as
second-hand smoke is as deadly as the real tobacco smoke.
There are many other diseases associated with
the use of tobacco such as tuberculosis, influenza, chronic cough, cancer and
so on.
Medical research has shown that a single stick
of cigarette contains more than 4,000 cancer-causing chemicals which are extremely
harmful to the human body.
It is also a major cause of infertility, both in
male and female and in the words of former Director General, of WHO, Dr. Gro
Harlem Brundtland, “Tobacco is one of the greatest emerging health disasters in
human history.”
This alarming medical statistics give cause for
concern, any government that is interested in the good and well-being of its
people should decide to out-rightly ban smoking and not only in public places.
Tobacco Smoking Control Act 1994 in Nigeria
prohibits smoking in public places such as cinema, theatre, stadium, offices,
public transportation, lift, medical establishment, institutions, hotels and
restaurants.
Nigeria should have a first-class city where the
structural beauty is appropriately complimented by practices that comply with
international medical standards. I am aware that Nigeria is a signatory to the
WHO-initiated Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
Tobacco smoking is dangerous for pregnant women
and children whose lungs are still too tender to withstand the dangerous
chemicals they inhale.
An article in one of the WHO convention clearly
states that: “Each nation shall adopt and implement in areas of existing
national jurisdiction as determined by national law and actively promote the
adoption and implementation of effective legislative, executive, administration
and/or other measures providing for protection from exposure to tobacco smoke
in indoor workplaces, public transport, indoor public places and as
appropriate, other public places”.
Former minister of FCT, Alhaji Aliyu Modibbo
once ban smoking in public places in the Federal Capital City, but now that is
a thing of the past as smoking as returned to public places within the city.
People smokes heavily in Nigeria, most
especially the youths, despite series of warnings by the Federal Ministry of
Health that smoker are liable to die young. The youths are deeply involved in
this act. Some of them would even tell you the warning by the Ministry of
Health is not true, as their fathers lived for 100 years as a smoker.
If you don’t smoke, some of the
youths believe you are not Y2K compliant and would not want to associate with
you. But, why are you gambling with your life? Things others do and go scot-free,
many would do and pay dearly with their life.
In a poem titled: “Give me one more cigarette or
I die” by Dr. Ayomikun Soyombo, he wrote and I quote: “kindly save the next
stick for tomorrow, when tomorrow emerges, save it again for tomorrow and let it
become a relic of your battle. As for the next puff, let tomorrow never come”.
A word is enough for the wise.
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