Save Teenagers from Smoking
Everyone can see teenagers congregate in areas like cafe, restaurant, hotels and small shops smoking cigarettes and enjoying by trying to hide their smoking in Kathmandu valley and other major urban cities of Nepal. They show a propensity to go to such places for smoking and avoid their school and college classes. In fact the teens smoking rate is increasing in these cities. But no one is stopping them. People talk about sex education to save teens from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Many NGOs are working to save teens from drug abuse. However, nobody talks about anti smoking education and works seriously against smoking even smoking is becoming one of the common habits among the teenagers. Can a nation born a healthy future with the majority of smoking teenagers?
Most of the teens feel like older and wiser when they smoke. They want to act different from others and therefore start smoking. Peer influence is the most important reason of why these teens start to smoke. The more teens see the actors smoking on TV shows and in the movies, the more likely they'll try it themselves. Influence of parents, pressure of friends and attempt to test the cigarettes also make the Nepalese teens to begin smoking. The American Lung Association estimates that every minute four thousand eight hundred teens of the world will take their first drag off a cigarette. Out of them, about two thousand will go on to be chain smokers. It has been estimated that about 80% of adult smokers started smoking as teenagers.
The problem is that when they take the first puff, they can become addicted. The nicotine inhaled in tobacco smoke is highly addictive. When the body becomes accustomed to the presence of nicotine, it then requires the use of the chemical to help the body to function normally. Tobacco smoke also contains over 4,000 chemicals, many of which are known causes of cancer. Few of these chemicals are Carbon monoxide, Acetone, Naphthalene, Sulphur compounds, Lead, Volatile Alcohol, Formaldehyde and so on. When you smoke, all of these chemicals mix together and form a sticky tar that accumulate in the lungs and cause various diseases like heart diseases, lung cancer, bronchitis, emphysema and stroke. Nicotine disrupts the development of nerve connections in the maturing adolescent brain. Most of the teenagers who smoke do not perform well in schools and colleges. They can also start experimenting alcohol and drugs.
Hand smoke releases the same 4,000 chemicals as smoke that is directly inhaled but the quantity may be high. Approximately 50 of these chemicals (carcinogens) cause cancer. Cigarettes burn for approximately 12 minutes, but smokers usually only inhale for 30 seconds. That means for 11 minutes and 30 seconds cigarettes are spewing smoke outside into the air for others to breathe. This makes other people vulnerable to the diseases caused by cigarette smoke.
Everyone knows that "smoking is injurious to health ". All know that if we start smoking that 1/3 of we will eventually die from it. However teenagers think that they can live forever. So they do not care these health warnings. Therefore to save the teens from smoking parents should be very cautious. They should look after their teens. At school and college, teachers should pay attention on their students. We must support local efforts to ban smoking in all public places and demand the government to make strict rules to prohibit smoking on such places. Also it should make a policy of giving license for selling cigarettes in certain places only as it is done for alcoholic products. Anti smoking education should be given for teens from the school levels. Advertisement and movies enticing smoking must be prohibited.
Teens are the future of a nation. We have a responsibility to care and save our next generations from this dreadful addiction. So quit smoking or help a loved one quit.
Pawan Kumar Neupane
Central Department of Environmental Science
T.U., Kirtipur
E-mail: pawan.usk@gmail.com
Contact No. 9841309168
Everyone can see teenagers congregate in areas like cafe, restaurant, hotels and small shops smoking cigarettes and enjoying by trying to hide their smoking in Kathmandu valley and other major urban cities of Nepal. They show a propensity to go to such places for smoking and avoid their school and college classes. In fact the teens smoking rate is increasing in these cities. But no one is stopping them. People talk about sex education to save teens from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Many NGOs are working to save teens from drug abuse. However, nobody talks about anti smoking education and works seriously against smoking even smoking is becoming one of the common habits among the teenagers. Can a nation born a healthy future with the majority of smoking teenagers?
Most of the teens feel like older and wiser when they smoke. They want to act different from others and therefore start smoking. Peer influence is the most important reason of why these teens start to smoke. The more teens see the actors smoking on TV shows and in the movies, the more likely they'll try it themselves. Influence of parents, pressure of friends and attempt to test the cigarettes also make the Nepalese teens to begin smoking. The American Lung Association estimates that every minute four thousand eight hundred teens of the world will take their first drag off a cigarette. Out of them, about two thousand will go on to be chain smokers. It has been estimated that about 80% of adult smokers started smoking as teenagers.
The problem is that when they take the first puff, they can become addicted. The nicotine inhaled in tobacco smoke is highly addictive. When the body becomes accustomed to the presence of nicotine, it then requires the use of the chemical to help the body to function normally. Tobacco smoke also contains over 4,000 chemicals, many of which are known causes of cancer. Few of these chemicals are Carbon monoxide, Acetone, Naphthalene, Sulphur compounds, Lead, Volatile Alcohol, Formaldehyde and so on. When you smoke, all of these chemicals mix together and form a sticky tar that accumulate in the lungs and cause various diseases like heart diseases, lung cancer, bronchitis, emphysema and stroke. Nicotine disrupts the development of nerve connections in the maturing adolescent brain. Most of the teenagers who smoke do not perform well in schools and colleges. They can also start experimenting alcohol and drugs.
Hand smoke releases the same 4,000 chemicals as smoke that is directly inhaled but the quantity may be high. Approximately 50 of these chemicals (carcinogens) cause cancer. Cigarettes burn for approximately 12 minutes, but smokers usually only inhale for 30 seconds. That means for 11 minutes and 30 seconds cigarettes are spewing smoke outside into the air for others to breathe. This makes other people vulnerable to the diseases caused by cigarette smoke.
Everyone knows that "smoking is injurious to health ". All know that if we start smoking that 1/3 of we will eventually die from it. However teenagers think that they can live forever. So they do not care these health warnings. Therefore to save the teens from smoking parents should be very cautious. They should look after their teens. At school and college, teachers should pay attention on their students. We must support local efforts to ban smoking in all public places and demand the government to make strict rules to prohibit smoking on such places. Also it should make a policy of giving license for selling cigarettes in certain places only as it is done for alcoholic products. Anti smoking education should be given for teens from the school levels. Advertisement and movies enticing smoking must be prohibited.
Teens are the future of a nation. We have a responsibility to care and save our next generations from this dreadful addiction. So quit smoking or help a loved one quit.
Pawan Kumar Neupane
Central Department of Environmental Science
T.U., Kirtipur
E-mail: pawan.usk@gmail.com
Contact No. 9841309168
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