Tobacco is still gloriously taking our lives
The innocent children of this beautiful country are still going through many tribulations with milestones to celebrate. The abuse, exploitation, forced labour, forced marriage, denial of food, healthy lives – left on the streets to die of hunger, disease, floods and others are shot dead without a reason and then the poison from tobacco is one a rather neglected social evil in our society.
Children mortality rate in the country is high. It is above average with a figure of 59.737 deaths per 1000 live births. On a good note, there is a 1.9% decline from the 2021 rate but still a lot needs to be done to reduce the rate at which children die at birth with many of these deaths being caused by pregnant women smoking tobacco from cigarettes and pipes.
Tobacco smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of health problems for developing babies, including preterm birth, low birth weight, and birth defects of the mouth and lip. It also increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million people a year. A more serious worry in our context is passive smoking where just a passer-by is forced to inhale tobacco smoke from people in the streets, riders, drivers, children – it is just sad.
Passive smoking involves a non-smoking person inhaling tobacco smoke from the person that is smoking right better. More than 4000 chemicals have been identified in tobacco smoke and there is no safe level of exposure to passive smoking. This kills around 1.2 million yearly globally.
Over 80% of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low-and middle-income countries. This clearly defines how our country’s sad situation is true but how much are the smokers willing to put away the tobacco?