Smoking as a Social Problem: How It Harms Your Health and How to Quit

Today I was in the center of Kharkiv, and the city struck me with how many people smoke! It was unbelievable: you walk along, someone ahead of you is smoking, and all the smoke blows into your face. You overtake them or deliberately fall behind — and there’s another one. All in all, I’d say at least 70% of the people I saw were smoking. There’s a crisis on, yet it doesn’t seem to affect smokers — if anything, “this kind of life” probably makes even more people smoke. None of this is encouraging.

Food for thought: smoking damages your health

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco kills more than 5 million people worldwide every year.

• smoking causes 80–90 out of 100 cases of lung cancer;
• smoking contributes to cancer of other organs too — the larynx, trachea, esophagus, pancreas and bladder;
• smoking narrows the blood vessels, and damaged vessels in the legs can even lead to amputation;
• smoking is one of the main causes of heart attacks at a young age: young smokers have a risk several times higher than non-smokers;
• smokers get colds, bronchitis and emphysema much more often;
• smoking ages the skin, making it dry and wrinkled;
• smoking destroys teeth and gums;
• smoking harms women’s fertility and can cause impotence in men.

Smokers don’t only harm themselves

Secondhand smoke is dangerous too: the smoke that people around you breathe in raises their risk of heart disease and lung cancer. Children of smoking parents suffer most — they get bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma more often.

How to quit

• One reader recommends Allen Carr’s book “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking” — it has genuinely helped many people.
• Nicotine patches or gum can ease cravings at first — it’s best to choose them together with a doctor.
• It’s never too late to quit: after just one year without cigarettes, the extra risk of coronary heart disease caused by smoking drops by about half.

A few pictures on the topic

P.S. And remember: not only are you ruining your own health, you’re ruining the health of those around you. On top of that, tobacco tycoons profit from you — and so does a medical industry that benefits when you’re sick and bringing it your money.