The smoking causes over 50 kinds of cancer diseases as of spreading 4700 chemical substances from a smothered cigarette and if prompt action was not initiated, the death rate would be increased up to ten million people by the year 2020 as a result of the use of tobacco.
Talking to APP, Assistant Professor of Medicine, LUMHS Jamshoro Dr.Santosh Kumar said that smokeless tobacoo causes oral cancer and might be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, bidis increase the risk for oral, lung, and esophageal cancers while water pipe smoking increases the risk for oral and lip cancer and obstructive lung disease.
Dr.Santosh Kumar said that smoking causes a range of diseases never before suspected, including cataracts, acute myeloid leukemia and cervical, kidney, pancreatic and stomach cancers. In fact, smoking affects virtually every organ of the body, he added.
He said that worldwide smoking is responsible to many times more deaths than road and air accidents, murders, suicides and HIV infections put together and the smoking related diseases are responsible for one in every 10 adult deaths.
Dr.Santosh Kumar said that health authorities everywhere have launched various campaigns to get as many people to quit smoking as possible. Dr. Kumar said that the cigarettes were the most commonly used and probably the most dangerous tobacco product on the market, adding that smoking cigars and pipes and using smokeless tobacco products (chewing tobacco and snuff) were also risky.
He said that smokeless tobacco might play a role in causing high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
He said that the passive smokers were more prone to hazards as they inhale all the smoke of the active smokers so the family members of the smoker head have more chances of falling prey to above mentioned diseases.
Dr.Santosh said the chance that a non-tobacco user gets mouth cancer is 50 times lower and at the beginning, chewing tobacco determines the appearance of some injuries in the mouth. These injuries precede oral cancer and the early detection of such injuries helps in the treatment of mouth cancer.
He said people must also know that many of the mouth cancer symptoms are provoked by tobacco. Smoking cigarettes and even chewing tobacco may be actions that accelerate the appearance of mouth cancer symptoms.
Dr.Santosh Kumar also demanded from the government to enforce the laws strictly banning smoking at the public places, offices, schools, colleges, during the traveling and also put a ban on advertisements of cigarettes in print and electronic media.
