By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Over 6 billion people inhabit this world of ours; more than one-sixth of them smoke. 1.1 billion people smoke approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes, which is the number produced globally by the tobacco industry each year. Of this number about 650 million will eventually be killed by tobacco at the rate of one death every 6 seconds. Need we say more! Yet despite the mounting evidence of the myriad manners tobacco destroys the human race, one billion of us do not care. The rest of us should. Billions of us who have never smoked will also suffer disease and death by breathing second hand smoke. Studies by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) causes 10 times as many deaths as heart blood vessel disease, as well as cancer and other respiratory ailments. An estimated 35,000 ischemic heart disease deaths annually are associated with environmental tobacco in the US alone, a country more aware of its hazards than any. Research in this area is extensive, leaving no doubt that non-smokers drop dead at an alarming rate for simply frequenting smokers. How fair is that? Passive smoke has been declared a known carcinogen, "a serious and substantial health risk particularly for children. Ninety percent of nonsmokers are all exposed to ETS, which contains 4,000 chemicals and at lest 40 known carcinogens. Until when will all the victims to those who could and would not, or would and cannot stop smoking? How do we protect infants, family members and co-workers from breathing second hand smoke? Even if banned in the workplace, how do we protect children and others in the home? What about the unborn child the most helpless of all victims? Too many women continue to smoke during pregnancy with full knowledge that they are harming their dearly awaited unborn offspring. Who will protect the unborn fetus, if not his own mother? Admittedly, addiction is an obsessive, pernicious form of enslavement. Have we any other choice but to find an equally or more drastic cure. Otherwise our future will seem dimmer than our present. Physicians, social workers, elders, family members must aid the expectant mother to refrain from destroying her baby. The inhaled nicotine and carbon dioxide reduces the amount of oxygen supplied to the fetus by about 40%, resulting in a lower birth rate, ranging from 150 to 250 grams, and a decrease in length, head circumference, and liver size. Those are the minor problems. The major ones include malformations which increase by 50 -- 75%, like cleft palates and several types of cancer. Studies have also shown that the intellectual development of the fetus is impaired and continues throughout childhood. Such children often possess up to 15 points lower IQs, decreased cognitive abilities, and difficulty with speech and motor capabilities. Children of smokers are more likely to smoke, and the cycle continues. A Columbia University study finds a consistent relationship between the use of cigarettes and alcoholic intake and illicit drugs. Many who do drugs start with cigarettes at an early age. Children 12-17, who smoke, are 19 times more likely to use cocaine as adults. Why do some of us smoke and others do not? Studies, though not conclusive, show that smoking may have a genetic predisposing factor. Risk takers in life engage in more harmful behaviour and consequently are more inclined to smoke, drink and do drugs. There is room for some sympathy for adults, but more is the pity for the sacrificial lambs slaughtered at the hands of smokers at the sacred alter of tobacco. A little known factor is that smoking lowers the effect of the chemicals of prescribed medication, not only for first, but also for second hand smokers. It removes the effect of vitamin supplement efficiency, especially vitamin C, and is most hazardous when combined with hormonal intake such as progesterone, resulting in infertility, and collagen destruction, not to mention an alarming increased rate of heart attacks amongst women. In many Asian, Muslim, and Middle Eastern countries smoking the hookah, sheesha, or as Westerners will call it "the hubbly bubbly," is a common pastime. The prevailing misconception is that it is less harmful than cigarette smoking. A traditional water-pipe which operates by water filtration and indirect heat produces a warm smoke and a pleasant tobacco aroma. The result of this euphoria is that the sheesha contains many times more carbon dioxide. The portion or 'hogra' is equal to smoking 40 cigarettes. An average of 4 hogras a day is equal to 160 cigarettes, or 960 toxins. Hooka tobacco encompasses 5000 toxins compared to 2000 in cigarettes. Tourists, who rush to experience the sheesha, are ignorant of its harmful effects. The increased popularity amongst women and young girls is astounding as they puff away, heedless of its wicked repercussions. There was a time, not too long ago, when lighting a cigarette was the epitome of glamour. The world's beautiful people, movie stars, celebrities, writers, heads of state, attached their image to one form of tobacco or another. Super star Humphrey Bogart, Hollywood's "cool cat" of his era, was never seen without a cigarette dangling. He died of lung cancer at 58. Jean Paul Sartre used Gauloise cigarettes as part of his image, while British philosopher Bertrand Russell, and Joseph Stalin, Russia's iron man looked happiest puffing on their pipes. Winston Churchill's cigar was as much admired as he was. In his book Cigarettes are Sublime, Richard Klein describes the pivotal role cigarettes played in 19th and 20th century literature. All major religions have joined the battle against smoking. Christian preachers have listed tobacco along with alcohol and gambling as self-injurious and sinful. Catholic and Protestant medical ethics claim we are stewards of the body which is a gift from God. In Islam, a Mufti declaration in 1981, prohibited smoking according to Shareia law, which was revised in 2002 by a decree of the National Council listing tobacco's many hazards. Was all the scientific knowledge amassed during half a century, for naught? Did all government restrictions and religious counseling fall on deaf addict ears? Reduction in tobacco consumption has only diminished among the 50- 65 group, and increased among the 18-30 group, while more teens and more women are smoking than ever before. Even in films, the incidence of smoking in 2002 was nearly the same as in 1950 movies. Egypt joined the World Health Organization's 'No Tobacco Day' May 31st, calling for 100% smoke-free environment. Did the world heed the call for one day? Is one day enough? one week? one month ? one year ? every year? Can we make this a tobacco-free earth for future generations? If we do not, tobacco will slowly, but surely kill those who smoke and those who don't, eventually destroying the whole human race. I have never smoked in my life, and look forward to a time when the world will look back in amazement and disgust to a practice, so unnatural and offensive. -- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
