The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million people a year, including around 1.2 million deaths from exposure to second-hand smoke. Over 80% of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest. Tobacco use contributes to poverty by diverting household spending from basic needs such as food and shelter to tobacco.
All forms of tobacco are harmful, and there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco. Cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use worldwide. Other tobacco products include waterpipe tobacco, various smokeless tobacco products, cigars, cigarillos, roll-your-own tobacco, pipe tobacco, bidis and kreteks.
Health Risks of Smoking Tobacco
Tobacco use harms every organ in your body. Smoking tobacco introduces not only nicotine but also more than 5,000 chemicals, including numerous carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals), into your lungs, blood and organs. The damage caused by smoking can shorten your lifespan significantly.
Pregnant women who smoke put their unborn babies at risk, too. Possible effects on pregnancy include:
● Ectopic pregnancy, a life-threatening condition when the embryo implants outside the uterus.
● Miscarriages.
● Stillbirths.
● Birth defects, such as cleft palate.
● Low birth weight.
Smokeless tobacco can cause nicotine addiction. People who use chewing tobacco may develop cancers of the mouth, esophagus and pancreas. And chewing tobacco causes gum disease, tooth decay and tooth loss. The safety and dangers of e-cigarettes remain unclear. Many e-cigarettes contain high amounts of nicotine. And vaping may be a gateway into other forms of nicotine, like cigarettes or chewing tobacco.
E-cigarette vapors contain other damaging substances, too. Inhaling these non-nicotine vape ingredients may cause severe, sometimes deadly lung damage
On World No Tobacco Day, the National CSR Network brings to you 7 effective ways to quit tobacco.
7 ways to resist the urge to smoke or use tobacco
1. Try nicotine replacement therapy
Ask your health care provider about nicotine replacement therapy. The options include:
● Prescription nicotine in a nasal spray or inhaler
● Nicotine patches, gum and lozenges you can buy without a prescription
2. Avoid triggers
Tobacco urges are likely to be strongest in the places where you smoked or chewed tobacco most often, such as at parties or bars, or at times when you were feeling stressed or sipping coffee. Find out your triggers and have a plan in place to avoid them or get through them without using tobacco.
3. Chew on it
Give your mouth something to do to resist a tobacco craving. Chew on sugarless gum or hard candy. Or munch on raw carrots, nuts or sunflower seeds — something crunchy and tasty.
4. Don’t have ‘just one’
You might be tempted to have just one cigarette to satisfy a tobacco craving. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can stop there. More often than not, having just one leads to one more. And you may end up using tobacco again.
5. Try relaxation techniques
Smoking may have been your way to deal with stress. Fighting back against a tobacco craving can itself be stressful. Take the edge off stress by trying ways to relax, such as deep breathing, muscle relaxation, yoga, visualization, massage or listening to calming music.
6. Go online for support
Join an online stop-smoking program. Or read a quitter’s blog and post encouraging thoughts for someone else who might be dealing with tobacco cravings. Learn from how others have handled their tobacco cravings.
7. Remind yourself of the benefits
Write down or say out loud why you want to stop smoking and resist tobacco cravings. These reasons might include:
● Feeling better
● Getting healthier
● Sparing your loved ones from secondhand smoke
● Saving money