English 3

Smoking Addiction, Its Affect and Treatments For It

According to the World Health Organization, 1 billion people in the world smoke, despite of the

fact that smoking cause many negative matters. Tobacco epidemic is killing about 6 million people

per year, the cause of death of more than 5 million of them is the result of direct smoking, and more

than 600000 is dying because of the second-hand smoke.

Second-hans smoke is the smoke that fills the restaurant, offices or their enclosed spaces when

people burn tobacco products along the lines of cigarets, bidis, and water pipes. The smoke that

comes out from the head of the tobacco is more harmful to health than the one coming out from

where smokers actually inhale. This being said, the surrounding people of the smokers are getting
 more of negative affect than the smokers themselves. This is totally not fair for those who do not

smoke.

Here are some examples of second-hand smoke ;

In adults, second-hand smoke causes serious

cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. In

infants, it causes sudden death. In pregnant women, it causes low birth weight.

Almost half of children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke in public places.

Second-hand smoke causes more than 600 000 premature deaths per year.

In 2004, children accounted for 28% of the deaths attributable to second-hand smoke.

This is considered to be the worst public health threats that the people who are located in the whole

world has ever faced. Therefore, the world somehow has to try solving this problem. However,
only one in three countries, representing one third of the population in the world monitors tobacco

use by repeating nationally representative youth and adult surveys at least once in five years.

For instance, only 18% of the population of the world is protected by the comprehensive national

smoke-free laws.

If there is no “perfect solution” for second-hand smoke, why not we focus on smokers to quit using

of tobacco products. In spite of the fact that it is not easy for them.

According to a study by WHO, a few smokers do understand the specific risk of tobacco use. For

example, a survey that was done in 2009 in China revealed that only 38% of smokers knew that

smoking causes coronary heart disease and only 27% knew that it causes stroke.

The world can start off helping smokers quit smoking by letting them know with reference to the

danger or negative affects of using tobacco products more widely.

Those smokers who understand the health risk of using tobacco products are aiming for quitting

smoking. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

more than two-thirds of the smokers wish to quit, but only a few succeeded.
 It is hard because in spite of the fact that they do want to quit it, the addiction would not let go of

them. Even if they try to keep tobacco products away from them, they will eventually,

unconsciously want tobacco.

In addition to this fact, there is another reason that not all of the smokers will succeed in quitting

smoking even though some doctors offer counseling or meditation. It is simply that one cure would

not cover all of the patients. In other words, if there were 10000 people, there should be 10000

different cures because of the fact that human beings are all different.

Another thing the world should work on is not only reducing the amount of smokers, but also stop

increasing the amount of new smokers. Some of the smoker try really hard to quit smoking which

will decrease the smoking population, however, what if more people than who quit smoking newly

started smoking, and they get addicted? The smoking population would never decrease. Therefore,

the world is responsible for warning people the negative results, addictions, health affects, and all

the other things that smoking and using of tobacco products will cause. So that people are aware of

them and hopefully this will decrease the amount of new smokers.

The next topic we should focus on is why there are so many people who are addicted to smoking or

who are attracted to it. According to Quitline, there are four reasons. The first one is with reference

to nicotine. Nicotine is one of thousands of chemicals in cigarettes. Nicotine gets involved in this

problem of people not having the ability to stop using the tobacco products as physical part of it. It

is very addictive and when people try to stop using the tobacco products, it causes the most of the

withdraw symptoms.
 The second cause is that it becomes a habit. It is also reinforced by all the routines, times and

activities you have come to associate with smoking.

For instance, after having meals, with drinks, every time finding a smoking booth or area, driving,

talking on the phone, talking to your friends who also smoke, and so on. There are so many chances

that remind of smoking and using the tobacco products in everyday life. Those events also cause

needs and cravings. People who smoke are “very-well-trained” that they cannot do anything without

smoking tobacco products.

Lastly, tobacco often controls the emotion of people. People addicted to smoking tobacco products

have some emotional reason for it and they have something that they feel by doing so. For example,

when they feel lonely and sad, tobacco products may make them feel better, when they are angry

and they cannot do anything about the cause that is making them that way, they would smoke to

feel better or escape from the real world for a little moment. They will also smoke if they wanted to

calm themselves down, when they are nervous for something. As it states that Often cigarettes are

used to cover up an uncomfortable feeling too, such as when you're angry or when you're nervous.

Now, the focus should be on how these factors of smoking can be eliminated or covered. There is

an effective treatment for the first cause, the addiction to Nicotine. Some companies sell Nicotine

patches that you will simply put on to your skin, gum, and lozenges. They will cover up the nicotine

that people will crave when they do not smoke tobacco products. These can be ordered online at a

reasonable rate. Secondly, I believe the habit is the hardest thing to take away from a person.

Addicted smokers must be treated by doctors with a right treatment or more. They could include

meditation, counseling, and group talks. The last cause is somewhat similar to the second one. The

repeat smokers need to be trained not to crave tobacco products. This is considered to be the most

difficult one to solve of all the three factors of the addiction to smoking. A possible treatment for

this factor would be, first, the patient will get a counseling with a licensed doctor or two. They need

to discuss when the patient feels like smoking tobacco products. This process will lead them to
 finding the emotions that the patient has when he / she craves the tobacco products. Then finally

they will be able to find alternatives to smoking tobacco products when the patient feels those

emotions. The alternatives may be, calling their family on the phone when they feel sad, listening to

some relaxing music or singing out loud in Karaoke when they feel angry, taking deep breathes

when they feel nervous or anxious, going out for a little jogging when they are just bored and feel

empty having nothing to do. Those alternatives should be very personal.

As a conclusion, there are a lot of danger and risks that smoking tobacco products cause, for not

only the smokers but also the people around them. Smoking tobacco products may seem as if it is

making the emotions of the smokers better, however, it is just temporary and the risk of it is much

bigger. There are a lot of opportunities of treatments for those smokers who wish to quit smoking

seriously. To make the world environment better, smoking population should definitely decrease.

Works Cited

“Tobacco”. Web page. World Health Organiation. June 2016. <

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/ >

“Why Smokers Try, But Can’t Quit”. Web page. TIME. Maria Szalaviz. 11 Novemver 2011.

< http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/11/most-smokers-want-to-quit-but-few-use-the-best-

strategies/ >
“The smoking addiction”. Web page. Quitline. < http://www.quit.org.nz/63/help-to-quit/the-

smoking-addiction >