Women Lead India 3rd To The Death Journey...A Shocking Truth !!

Few months ago we submitted a brief report on smoking, where we clearly mentioned about the bad side of the cigarette smoking. But after watching this I'm quite sure that,our all effort to aware people about the bad impact of smoking, failed. The implementation of the post is 'Zero'. It is very shocking to me and I think as well as to the whole of the World !!

Here, in a latest survey report, it's revealed that India holds the third position in smoking and guess who made them..Third!! None other than women of India. I must say, the power of women in India is really impressive ! Cheers to the Indian Women :)

Indian women are among the worst in the world when it comes to smoking. According to the latest Tobacco Atlas, the country ranks third in the top 20 female smoking populations across the globe.

Only the US with 2.3 crore female smokers and China with 1.3 crore women smokers are worse off than India in this chart. However, as far as percentage of women smoking is concerned, it is below 20% for India.

Among India's immediate neighbors, only Pakistan figures in this infamous list, but right at the
bottom at 20th with around 30 lakh female smokers.

Published by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation, the Atlas makes another serious observation -- female smokers in India die an average eight years earlier than their non-smoking peers.

According to the Atlas, about 250 million women in the world are daily smokers -- 22% being from high resource countries and 9% from low and middle resource countries.

Releasing the potential of this growing market, the Atlas said the tobacco industry has been
marketing cigarettes to women using seductive but false images of vitality, emancipation, slimness,sophistication and sexual allure.

Reacting to the report, Dr P C Gupta, director of Healis Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health, told
TOI that this finding had very serious implications for India. "Even though the percentage
prevalence of women smoking in India isn't that high, the number is huge. In addition to all the
harm that tobacco causes to men, women are additionally exposed in a special way because of their reproductive function."

Dr Gupta added that tobacco consumption reduced birth weight of the fetus, decreased their
gestational age leading to premature babies, increased the risk of still births and heightened
chances of anemia among adult pregnant women.

"The government isn't focusing on anti-tobacco campaign that specially targets women. Smoking is definitely increasing in young college going women showing that the tobacco industry is targeting them very strongly," Dr Gupta added.

The Atlas said tobacco killed some six million people each year -- more than a third of whom will
die from cancer -- and drained $500 billion annually from global economies.

As 25% of smokers die and many more become ill during their most productive years, income loss devastates families and communities. In 2010, 72% of those who die from tobacco related illnesses would be in low- and middle-income countries. By 2030, 83% of these deaths will occur in low and middle-income countries.

Unveiled at the Global Cancer Summit on Wednesday, the Atlas said 2.1 million cancer deaths per year will be attributable to tobacco by 2015. "The Atlas is crucial to helping advocates in every nation get the knowledge they need to combat the most preventable global health epidemic," said John R Seffrin, CEO of American Cancer Society.

Now it is upto you whether you will ruin your future in the smoke of Death or stretch your hands to welcome the cheerful life.

Mr. Obama Affixed His Signature On Smoking Bill !!

President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill giving the government historic powers to curb cigarette makers, declaring the move emblematic of the change he is bringing to Washington.Mr Obama affixed his signature to the measure with a nod to his own struggles to kick the habit, and lamented the fact that 1,000 people under the age of 18 become regular smokers every day,
courting a range of grave health risks.

"I know, I was one of these teenagers, and so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it's been with you for a long time," he said."I also know that kids today don't just start smoking for no reason – they're aggressively targeted as customers by the tobacco industry.

"They're exposed to a constant and insidious barrage of advertising where they live, where they learn, and where they play."

The law grants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a regulatory body, the authority to ban flavorings added to some tobacco products and require tough new warning labels, in a bid to lessen tobacco use among young people.Mr Obama argued that the bill's passage was just the latest sign that he was living up to his promise to forge fundamental political reform.

"When I ran for president, I did so because I believed that, despite the power of the status qua and the influence of special interests, it was possible for us to bring change to Washington," he said.

"And today, despite decades of lobbying and advertising by the tobacco industry, we passed a law to help protect the next generation of Americans from growing up with a deadly habit that so many of our generation have lived with."

Under the new law, the FDA will create a new Center for Tobacco Products to oversee the science-based regulation of tobacco products in the United States.It bans cigarettes dominantly flavoured with candy, fruit and spice by October this year, and forces tobacco firms and importers to submit information to the FDA about ingredients and additives in tobacco products.
The measure places strict limits on tobacco advertising in publications with a significant teenage readership, and bans the use of words like "mild" or "light" in advertisements that make tobacco products seem safer.The FDA will now be required to enforce a rule banning all outdoor tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds, and the bill ends all tobacco-brand sponsorship of sport and entertainment events.

Under the measure, tobacco companies must disclose to the FDA the ingredients in their products, and allow the agency to require changes to protect public health, though not to reduce nicotine content to zero or ban a class of tobacco products.Larger and more specific health warnings will now have to cover the top third of the front and rear panels of tobacco product
packages and the FDA will have the power to require graphic warning labels that cover half of the front and rear panels.

The bill was backed by health groups like the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association for its curbs on smoking, the number one cause of preventable death in the United States.

Under the legislation:

1. Cigarette packages will have warning labels that cover 50 percent of the front and rear. The word "warning" must be included in capital letters.

2. Any remaining tobacco-related sponsorships of sports and entertainment events will be banned, as will giveaways of non-tobacco items with the purchase of a tobacco product. A federal ban will be imposed on all outdoor tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds.

3. Point-of-sale advertising will be limited to adults-only facilities, and remaining vending machines will disappear except in places restricted to adults. Retailers who sell to minors will be subject to federal enforcement and penalties.

4. Smokers, particularly the younger crowd, will find they can no longer buy cigarettes sweetened by candy flavors or any herb or spices such as strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon or vanilla. Cigarettes advertised as "light" or "mild," giving the impression that they aren't as harmful to health, will no longer be found on store shelves.

Invisible Fears In Smoke-Remain Unrevealed!!

Smoking is a habit that endangers a lot of people. If you are a smoker, you are not only "killing" yourself, but people around you as well. I know it is very hard to believe, but it's true? Well, you have to know. Let’s take a look at a few of the smoking facts that I collected, based on my research.

Some Important Facts About Smoking:-

• There are 1.1 billion smokers in the world today, and if current trends continue, that number is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by the year 2025.
• Radioactive lead and polonium are both present in low levels in cigarette smoke.
• Kids are still picking up smoking at the alarming rate of 3,000 a day in the U.S., and 80,000 to 100,000 a day worldwide.
• On average, a smoker may and can die, 16 years earlier than a non smoker. Why? Because smoking cause some very serious diseases such as cancer and stroke.
• Generally, users of tobacco of all types – cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and smokeless tobacco – are 5 to 10 times more likely to get mouth or throat cancer than nonsmokers are.
• Approximately one quarter of the youth alive in the Western Pacific Region (East Asia and the Pacific) today will die from tobacco use.

Cigarettes are not cheap. In some countries, the tax charged by the government could be as high as 300% or more! This cause the expensive price of the cigarettes. In US for example, a smoker could spend approximately $3000 or more a year. If you’ve been smoking for 10 years (like I used to be), just imagine how much money you have spent, and this money is used to kill yourself (or make you die earlier - that’s pretty much the same thing though).

Second Hand Smoking Is Also Very Dangerous For Human- Is It True?

I can explain it briefly but it is very hard to say that how many people could understand it! Because, a passionate smoker always think that his smoking habit does not harmful for others. So here is a small report for them.

• Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds, including carbon monoxide ( which poisons the human body), ammonia, formaldehyde, and other poisons. 4 of the chemicals – benzene, 2-naphthylamine, 4-aminobiphenyl, and polonium-210 are classified by the EPA as known carcinogens—cancer causing agents.
• Some 2 to 5 million US children suffer from asthma; of these, about 20 percent experience more asthma attacks and more severe attacks than their fellow young asthmatics, due to secondhand smoke.
• 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of diseases caused by exposure to second hand smoke every year.
• Secondhand smoke causes coughing, phlegm, chest discomfort and reduced lung function in nonsmokers.
• US infants and children under 18 months of age suffer some 150,000 to 300,000 respiratory tract infections (lung diseases such as pneumonia and bronchitis) every year, leading to 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations.

So from now when you will lighted up your cigarette, will always remember that you are inhaling many innocent lives through that white candy.

Most Important Facts About Pregnant Women:-

• Smoking More than half a pack a day may cause infertility or irregular menstrual cycles in women.
• Menopause often occurs earlier in women who smoke than in women who do not.
• Pregnant women pass any chemicals they take in (from food, tobacco, alcohol and so on) to their unborn children through the placenta.
• Women who smoke during pregnancy can slow down the baby's growth by reducing the amount of oxygen and increasing the amount of carbon monoxide that the baby receives during a critical time when its brain and nervous system are developing.
• Babies born of mothers who smoke frequently during pregnancy are on the average 7 ounces lighter than other babies.
• Smoking while pregnant increases the chances of spontaneous abortions (miscarriages) stillbirths and premature labor.
• Women who smoke have higher risks of giving birth to babies with birth defects or abnormalities.

Is It Harmful For Teenager?

It is harmful for everybody, but when it is a question of any teenager I can only say that he/she just clean his/her way to meet the mighty GOD... as soon as possible !

• Each day 3,000 children smoke their first cigarette.
• At least 3 million adolescents are smokers.
• Tobacco use primarily begins in early adolescence, typically by age 16.
• Almost all first use occurs before high school graduation.
• 20 percent of American teens smoke.
• Roughly 6 million teens in the US today smoke despite the knowledge that it is addictive and leads to disease.
• Of every 100,000 15 year old smokers, tobacco will prematurely kill at least 20,000 before the age of 70.
• Of the 3,000 teens who started smoking today, nearly 1,000 will eventually die as a result from smoking.

Social Responsibility :-

A 2001 Survey found that 69.4 percent of teenage smokers reported never being asked for proof of age when buying cigarettes in a store. The same survey found that 62.4 percent were allowed to buy cigarettes even when the retailer was aware they were under eighteen.

In 1845, the sixth US President, John Quincy Adams, wrote a letter to Rev. Samuel Cox in Brooklyn, who was in the process of writing a book about tobacco and smoking. Adams told Cox that when he was a young man, he had been addicted to both smoking and chewing tobacco. When he decided to quit it took him three months.

If you're a smoker wishing you could quit, make your mind up to dig your heels in and do the work necessary to get this monkey off your back now. You'll never regret it.