Every year, the 31st of May is marked as World No Tobacco Day. The day is aimed at highlighting the health hazards of tobacco use and advocating effective policies to stem tobacco consumption. This is an initiative of the World Health Organization and the theme for this year is: Get ready for plain packaging. The idea is to reduce demand for and appeal of cigarettes by making the packaging as plain as possible and also printing more graphic warnings on cigarette packaging.
Now while cigarettes are the most common form in which tobacco is consumed, there are actually several other ways in which people use tobacco. For example, cigar, pipes, bidis, and also smokeless methods such as chewables, dipping tobacco, dissolvable tobacco, snus amongst others i’m just finding out existed. For the purpose of this post however the focus will be on the more common forms around these parts.
Snuff is probably the most local form of tobacco for us in Nigeria. Some of us may have seen it around our grandparents and some of us may have seen it only on tv screens thanks to nollywood. Snuff is a finely ground form of tobacco which is meant to be shallowly sniffed into the nose where it is absorbed by the mucous membrane lining the nostrils. It is not deeply snorted (unlike some other drug that shall not be named) because it is not meant to get past the nose.
Hookah/Shisha. Now this is one of the more recent forms of tobacco smoking here in Nigeria. Smoking for cool kids as i like to think of it. Shisha is a moist and sticky tobacco that has been soaked in honey or molasses. It also comes in a variety of flavours that makes it even more appealing to young people. Now because shisha smoking usually occurs in social settings and no one actually carries a hookah around to smoke from all the time, it is assumed that this form of smoking is safer than cigarettes but studies have shown that this is not the case.
According to a report from the World Health Organization, a hookah smoking session may expose the smoker to more smoke over a longer period of time than occurs when smoking a cigarette.
Due to the method of smoking—including frequency of puffing, depth of inhalation, and length of the smoking session—hookah smokers may absorb higher concentrations of the same toxins found in cigarette smoke. Some people also argue that it’s not as addictive as cigarettes, but bear in mind that the substance that causes addiction to cigarettes is nicotine and this is very much present in shisha as well. There’s also the fact that people tend to share the hookah hose and so there’s always a chance of some infection being shared too.
Cigars. Now this is more for the big boys. The ones who can tell you the history of the bottle of scotch they just opened while pulling out a cuban cigar from a humidor. All very fancy and distinguished way of exposing oneself to the dangers of tobacco. Cigars go through a long aging and fermenting process and during this process high concentrations of carcinogenic compounds are produced. Some large premium cigars may contain almost the same amount of tobacco as a pack of cigarettes and the longer smoking time means even more exposure to these dangerous substances. Also nicotine is very present in cigars as well making them just as addictive as cigarettes because even in cigar smokers who do not inhale, the nicotine is absorbed slowly through the lining of the mouth. Both cigar and cigarette smokers have similar levels of risk for oral, throat and esophageal cancers.
When it comes to tobacco/smoking, there really is no good news. According to the World Health Organisation, tobacco use has been linked to about six million deaths across the world each year and Smoking has been linked to at least 14 different types of cancer. These are some scary figures.
Smoking is also the single most important modifiable risk factor for several medical conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart attack and stroke. It has also been linked to infertility. In women smoking is particularly discouraged because certain hormonal forms of contraception do not go well with a smoking habit.
Then there’s also that unmistakable smell of smoke that follows smokers around no matter how much perfume they spray or how many packs of tom tom they try to use to disguise it. So with all of this it’s best to avoid tobacco completely, in whatever form it may be presented. And if you already have a smoking habit, it’s best to quit as soon as possible as certain effects can be reversed gradually over time. So if you or somebody you know has a tobacco addiction, seek the necessary help to quit.
Unfortunately there is also the problem of second hand smoke. If you have ever been to a bar/lounge/club in Lagos you know the drill, you end up getting home smelling like a chimney even when you haven’t touched one cigarette because so many people were smoking inside an enclosed space. Which really shouldn’t be but smoking laws are not enforced so everybody is exposed. Certain studies have also shown that exposure to second hand smoke also has its own health risks and should therefore be avoided.
So as we join the rest of the world to mark World No Tobacco Day, it is important that we remind our government to do its own bit by passing and strictly enforcing smoking laws so that some of us don’t have to wash our hair after a night out or worse still end up with lung cancer in spite of being a non smoker.
