Tobacco – A Formidable Killer

Only 5% of the world’s population is protected by national legislation on the prohibition of smoking. In four countries in ten, smoking is still even permitted in hospitals and schools! In a new report, the World Health Organisation (the WHO) has reviewed the current battle around the world to combat smoking. In total 179 countries have been put under the microscope.

By focusing on the prevalence of smoking, legislation, taxation and even the import and export of tobacco products, the WHO has produced a first, exhaustive analysis of the worldwide anti-smoking battle. It is a study that shows that almost all countries must do more about this issue.

Overall, tax revenue from tobacco is 500 times higher than the sums spent by public authorities to combat smoking. Which is why the WHO recommends that the countries concerned should substantially  increase tobacco taxation and, as a result, the selling price of the products in question, i.e. cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, hookahs, roll-ups, chewing tobacco, etc.

As the WHO sees it, this approach is by far the most effective. Not only in reducing consumption but also in making a long-term source of funding available to support anti-smoking strategies.

In particular, the strategy advocated by the WHO under the name MPOWER. This involves systems to monitor tobacco use and prevention policies, protect people from tobacco smoke, offer help to quit tobacco use, warn about the dangers of tobacco and enforce bans on tobacco advertising.

These measures provide a roadmap to help countries fulfill and build on their WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control obligations, the WHO points out. The Convention is the Organisation’s response to the global strategy of the tobacco industry, which targets young people and adults in the developing world. And young women in particular, which is one of the most worrying indicators of how this epidemic is developing.

Worldwide, the tobacco epidemic is killing 4.9 million people a year. By 2030 this figure is likely to reach as many as 8 million. Which is a 63% increase!

Every day new studies show the dangers of smoking. Today its role in the development of new cancers, the incidence of cardiovascular accidents and eye disease is widely known. But did you know, for example, that when parents smoke it can also make their baby snore?

According to a British study, 10% of children under the age of 4 snore every night. In fact only 40% of our children are unaffected. Apart from the hereditary aspect of snoring, the explanation for these high figures is passive smoking.

The study involved 7,000 English children. Where one of the parents is a smoker, the risk of their child snoring is close to 60%. And it doubles if both parents smoke. This is a serious matter because early snoring can lead to an increased risk of respiratory complications: chronic cough, wheezing, recurring ear, nose and throat infections, etc. Hence the need for parents to listen out carefully when their baby is sleeping.

Another new finding is that smokers appear to be lazier than non-smokers. Already accused of having a poor diet, it now seems that smokers are particularly reluctant to exercise. This is the conclusion of a very serious study conducted by a team of Japanese researchers.

For 4 years, researchers at the Nagoya University of Medical Sciences studied the smoking and exercise habits of 750 Japanese people in good health. Their conclusion is clear. Smokers take systematically less exercise than non-smokers.

After quitting smoking, former smokers increase their level of activity. But as soon as they start smoking again they also fall back into their other bad habits. It seems that smoking destroys the will to be active. Three to four years after returning to smoking, their exercise level is the same as that of a regular smoker who has never given up smoking.

This is particularly worrying as exercise helps to prevent us getting overweight and suffering from high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. Which means that smokers are only increasing their risk factors even further…

In addition to the many other harmful effects that smoking has on our health, it also affects our sleep – in fact smokers quite simply sleep less and less well than non-smokers. The reason for this is the lack of nicotine that results from their night-time abstinence.

Trouble getting to sleep and achieving deep sleep are therefore 4 times more common among smokers. An American research team compared the sleep experience of 40 smokers and 40 non-smokers, all in good health and none of whom were taking sleeping tablets.

Until now, most of the studies carried out in this field relied on the gathering of subjective data, e.g. comments such as  “I slept well (or badly)…” This study, however, is based on the analysis of polysomnographic traces taken from patients. Their cardiac and respiratory rhythms were recorded continuously throughout the night in order to analyse the different phases of sleep.