Death by Smoke ..
By Sanya Nayeem, Hind Al Yousef, Mohammad Jihad, Community Desk
Published: May 09, 2009, 22:59
A pack of cigarettes every day, for seven days, has enough nicotine to kill a person if injected in a single shot. Tobacco destroys. Save your life and money by quitting smoking.
Gulf News Wipe Out Waste (WoW) campaign looks at the problem that kills a person every six seconds worldwide.
It is almost 11am, and you have been swamped with classes, deadlines, appointments, and meetings all morning.
Still, at the back of your head, there’s the comforting thought of the aromatic cup of coffee you are going to have soon.
For many though, these days, it seems like that classical coffee break has evolved to a coffee and cigarette break instead.
A habit that has almost become as common as breakfast, smoking is seemingly very popular across generations and nationalities in the UAE. What are the reasons that make a person adopt this habit?
For some, like Bilal Mateen, a 24-year-old Pakistani expatriate, it was the loneliness and the attempt to pass time. For others, the reasons were mainly social.
Mazen Mohammad, a 20-year-old Sudanese expatriate who started smoking at the age of 15 said: "In school, it was the cool thing to do; it was part of the social scene."
You might wonder sometimes, if these young smokers are aware of effects this habit has on their health, time, and spending habits. Surprisingly, they are well aware.
Mohammad says that he has noticed that as soon as he has taken on this habit, he has started having breathing difficulties, especially when he played sports.
With Mateen, the effects were more serious.
He said: "I have asthma and smoking makes the attacks so extensive that I need to use an inhaler almost every night."
Is time wasted on this habit?
Most smokers don’t seem to think so.
Ebrahim Al Mazroui, a 24-year old Emirati who has been smoking for seven years said: "I don’t think of it as a waste of time; it is like the time of the day you take off to have a cup of tea."
It is the same case with Mohammad who sees smoking as a nice way to just "hang out and socialise."
What about money?
On average, these smokers spend Dh200 on cigarettes. This amount, according to Mohammad and Mateen, is an amount that could be spent on gas, charity, or other daily expenses.
Why, you might ask, do they still engage in it if they are aware of all these effects?
For most of them, it is the difficulty of letting go. Marteen said: "It is a highly addictive habit and it requires so much effort and willpower to quit."
It is a similar case with Mohammad who said: "I tried to quit so many times, but because many of my friends are smokers, I find myself tempted to go back to it. "
Others believe that where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Al Mazroui said: "I decided to quit so many times, and I did it every time, for long periods."
It is the same with Ebrahim Seddiq, a 25-year-old Pakistani expatriate.
He said: "After being a smoker for three years, I realised the negative effects it had on my appetite, stamina level and how much time and money it wastes."
Seddiq hasn’t smoked in five years now.
Wasted money
We have often heard how smoking affects personal health, how it causes cancer and how it kills.
But, what about its impact on the economy?
According to Ajit Karnik, an Economics professor at the University of Wollongong in Dubai, there is no argument about the many negative aspects of smoking on the economy.
He said: "There is a positive correlation between smoking and bad health, and a non-healthy person no doubt would never be as productive as a person with good health."
Karnik explained that because the majority of smokers have respiratory and other health issues, which they suffer from constantly, their hospital visits are often.
This is an unnecessary waste of hospital resources such as equipment, medication and doctors’ time and energy and therefore affects the economy negatively in the end.
According to Karnik, unhealthy people tend to use health insurance more, which increases the cost on the companies they work for and on hospitals which provide the services.
Besides, cigarette breaks also waste time, not only when a smoker is taking them, but also when he or she is waiting to take them as they would not be as productive or focused as they could be.
International research has shown that when a task is interrupted, an individual takes about 10 times the duration of the break to refocus.
So, a two-minute cigarette break costs the company at least 20 minutes of productive work. Multiply that by two to three cigarette breaks and it is not surprising people complain of a shortage of time to complete their tasks.
He said: "There are without a question a lot of negative effects of smoking on the economy."
He added: "Still, in order to estimate the exact effect by numbers, it would require an in-depth research and collections of numbers and data. "
Why they will not give up
Despite knowing better, young smokers are addicted to cigarettes
Pay money to die earlier — a common phrase told to smokers when they light a cigarette.
According to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, on average, smokers die 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.
Despite knowing all the negative effects of smoking, smokers still risk it for a puff.
Speaking to three university students about smoking, one thing was requested by all of them … that is to stay anonymous.
So, why do young people go through all this just for a puff of smoke?
According to A.N., a 22-year-old Malaysian student, smoking is frowned upon and parents would not allow their children to inhale such dangerous substances.
She said: "I have a younger brother and sister and I would not want them to be encouraged. I got myself into this and would not want my siblings to start because of me."
A.N. smokes more than one pack of cigarettes a day and says addiction is the biggest reason for smoking, but it is a risk she is willing to take for the satisfaction of a cigarette.
Source : Gulfnews.com
