Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Your butt is my smokin’ problem

Smoking regulation has achieved some success; but it is pathetic that governments don’t have the honesty and sincerity to completely ban cigarette production globally – it’s clear how well money and lobbying works

It is appalling that despite all the medical advances mankind has made, the twenty first century still grapples with diseases that are perhaps even deadlier than those in the dark ages and have killed millions. The least we can do is to not add to the already depressing statistics through a social ill like smoking.

Innumerable researches have concluded that cigarettes contain 11 different known compounds that cause cancer. And almost everyone in any corner of the world – smoker or a non-smoker – is quite convinced that there are enough reasons to quit smoking irrespective of age, wealth, colour of skin or region where they live. Nearly every nation on this earth has realized the need for policy interventions and have gone some distance as well. They have achieved some success too, especially in the developed part of the world. As per data provided in Tobacco Yearbooks by Economic Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, during the 17 years between 1990 and 2007, while production and export of cigarettes in the US dropped by about 34%, consumption decreased by 31%. In 1990, cigarette production was 709.7 billion units, which came down to 471.6 billion in 2007. While the consumption was around 487 billion units per year in 1990, it came down to 360 billion in 2007 in the US. The picture is pretty similar in other developed nations of the world.

However, this does not mean that the job is done. Data on a global scale presents a horrifying picture today – more than ever before. There are 1.1 billion smokers in the world, and if current trends continue, the number is expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2025. More horrifyingly, of these, about 80% live in the low or middle-income countries. There are over 300 million smokers in China itself; consuming over 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year, which means 3 million cigarettes a minute. Researches further show that approximately 10 million cigarettes are purchased every minute; 15 billion are sold each day, and over 5 trillion are produced and used annually.


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