Jakarta, IO – 31 May is World No Tobacco Day (“WNTD”). Since 2010, the WHO has declared tobacco consumption a global pandemic. Global tobacco deaths amount to 8 million people a year, much worse than Covid-19 deaths at 6.3 million people worldwide, in nearly 3 years’ time. Smoking is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases, including heart attacks, strokes, cancers, diabetes and chronic lung obstruction.
WHO further reports that tobacco causes environmental damage throughout its planting, production, distribution, and consumption– even to the discarding of its waste, both post-production and post-consumption. The theme for this year’s WNTD is “Tobacco is Killing Us and Our Planet”. It asks us to increased awareness of the dangerous effects of exposure of cigarette smoke, as well as the dangers of tobacco use to human health and the environment. 4.5 trillion cigarette butts means 1.6 billion tons of carcinogenic waste a year, as they contain 4,000 addictive substances, including nicotine, tar, and cadmium.
Consultant pulmonary specialist from Persahabatan Central General Hospital, Jakarta, dr. Erlang Samoedro, Sp.P(K), declared in a live IG session on Tuesday (31/05/2022), that no matter what the form, whether ordinary cigarettes, vape, or cigars, tobacco products contain the addictive substance nicotine. “Because it is addictive, the best way is to not start at all. All types of burned, inhaled, and chewed tobacco products contain the same substances, only at different levels. They all pile up carcinogenic substances in our bodies. This will trigger diseases – the only question is ‘when’.”
Giving up smoking will improve the quality of your life. “The only thing you need to do to really quit smoking is intent, intent, intent. To mitigate symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, you can carefully eat sweets or do sports to generate adrenalin, which will replace the dopamine that nicotine used to give you. Don’t wait until you get an illness before you quit. If you find it hard to quit smoking, Persahabatan Hospital has a clinic for it. Our doctors may prescribe you with nicotine replacement therapies to help you handle cigarette withdrawal symptoms,” dr. Erlang said.