Rifat Zafreen :
‘No no you cannot smoke at home. My children are here. You must quit smoking and if no, then please at least go outside of home’- Kakoli screamed at Titas. Kakoli, mother of two children almost fight everyday with her husband upon smoking in front of the children smoking at home, no matter in another room since she knows the consequences of smoking in front of the children that she knows the worse impact of passive smoking or second hand smoking. Those children get seriously affected whose parents smoke. Most of us even do not know that it kills children silently when parents smoke at home or in front of them.
Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, is the smoke a smoker breathes out and that comes from the tip of burning cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. It contains about 4,000 chemicals. Many of these chemicals are dangerous; more than 50 are known to cause cancer. Anytime when children breathe in secondhand smoke, they get exposed to these chemicals.
Unfortunately parents’ smoking in front of the children is not something uncommon in Bangladesh. We the parents want our children follow our footsteps though of the adorable ones, while we forget about the impact of our bad dealings and habits upon our children. One of these dealings is like we smoke in front of them; though we want our children would never smoke.
It is the habit of most of the children to consider everything that their parents do to be righteous. A lot of teenagers assume that since their parents have the right to smoke, so do they. Even with the knowledge of the life threatening diseases associated with smoking, they still feel pretty excited about taking it up. Whereas for a lot of teenage boys, smoking is regarded as an act of initiation into manhood, a handful lot take up the habit just to be ‘rebels’.
Many parents, especially fathers promise with their children to quit smoking but stopping themselves from smoking for a few hours, they then again go back to the previous routine. The constant breaking of promises of quitting smoking sometimes gives rise to trust issues among children. This kills their trust upon their parents. Some children just give up persuading and either take up the addiction themselves or just become indifferent towards smoking.
In some cases, children whose parents smoke tend to feel insecure, as they develop an idea over time that their parents do not care about them and their own wellbeing, although that is not always the case. Nicotine is one of those drugs whose addiction cannot be weaned off easily. Knowing the harmful consequences unfortunately many yet carry on smoking with an active conscience.
Although parents try to make sure their children realize that, there is nothing worse than smoking, the hypocrisy is just too much when they themselves are puffing about 20 cigarettes a day even in front of them. However, it is definitely a good idea to listen to this piece of advice, because we really would not want our children inhale the same poison.
Since indirect smoking is hazardous, smoking by the people of different ages in the public places like roads, public transports, toilets, parks, markets, shopping malls, surrounding areas of schools and colleges etc continuously puts negative impact upon the people and especially upon the children. Indirect or passive smoking affects the person next to the smoker of which children and pregnant women are in much and huge risk. In order to stop smoking publicly, The Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act 2005 was enacted during 2005 first in our country. According to that Law, taka 50/- had been fixed as fine for smoking at the public places. But later in 2013 this Law was amended as The Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) (Amendment) Act, 2013 and here the finned money has been increased to taka 300/- from taka 50/- Later considering the public health. The Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act 2013 has been amended as The Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Rules, 2015 and to implement this Rules, Government and NGOs have been working sincerely and with strong hand.
Infect smoking cigarettes increases the risk of dying from all causes, not just those linked to tobacco use. Smoking cigarettes affects the respiratory system, circulatory system, reproductive system, skin and eyes and increases the risk of many different types of cancers. Direct smoking causes lung damage, heart disease, fertility problems, risk of pregnancy complications, risk of type-2 diabetes, weakens immune system, vision problems, causes poor oral hygiene, unhealthy skin and hair and more over increases the risk of other cancers while indirect or second smoke also affects much badly than this or the same. Effects of exposure to second hand smoke also includes the risk of cold and ear infections, asthma rise of blood pressure, heart problem. This also reduces level of high density lipoprotein or good cholesterol. Nicotine is such a bad and addictive drug that it can even cause withdrawn symptoms when a person stops using it which in most cases makes the person gets back to smoking again.
‘The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Secondhand Smoke’ by the 2006 US Surgeon General’s Report has concluded that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke that, on average, children are exposed to more secondhand smoking than the adults. Children are significantly affected by secondhand smoke as their developing bodies get in to the exposure of poison of secondhand smoke which puts them at the risk of severe respiratory disease which can even hinder the growth of their lungs. Secondhand smoking or passive smoking cause low birth weight, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, middle ear infection and other diseases to the children especially. All these contribute to infant mortality and health complications during adulthood. This also causes impairment to a child’s ability to learn. It has been found that worldwide more than 21.9 million children are estimated to be at the risk of reading deficits due to secondhand smoke. Higher level of exposure due to this are also associated with greater deficits in math and visuospatial reasoning. Research also finds the offspring of the mothers who smoke one pack of cigarettes per day during pregnancy have an IQ score that is on average 2.87 points lower than the children born to nonsmoking mothers. Passive smoking thus is likely to cause Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder to the children.
The US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) also has reported that secondhand smoking exposure increases the risk of lower respiratory tract infections along with bronchitis and premonia. The EPA estimates that between 150,000 and 300,000 annual cases of lower respiratory tract infections among infants and young children up to 18 months of age are attributable to secondhand smoke exposure. Of these cases between 7,500 and 15,000 results in hospitalization. Infants whose parents, especially mothers smoke are 50 percent more likely to be hospitalized with a respiratory infection during their first year when compared to infants with nonsmoking parents. Infants whose parents smoke in the same room have a 56 percent higher risk of being hospitalized compared to the infants whose parents smoke in a separate room. There is a 73 percent higher risk if mothers smoke while holding their infants and a 95 percent higher risk if mothers smoke while feeding their infants.
Even if we don’t smoke but breathe in someone else’s smoke, it can be deadly too. Secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 deaths from lung cancer and tens of thousands of deaths from heart diseases to nonsmoking adults in the United States each year. So, it can be measured how much hazardous it is to the children since the lungs and other organs of the children remain on developing stage, second hand smoking puts severe input upon them. But it is alarming that millions of children are breathing in secondhand smoke in their own homes and no matter outside. Due to this they may be in more danger than we realize. Children whose parents smoke only outside are still exposed to the chemicals in secondhand smoke. So the best way to eliminate this exposure is to quit smoking.
It is so the time to break this vicious cycle of smoking both active and passive. And we should do this for the sake of our children if not for us, since we are the last persons in the universe who want our children live safe, secured and healthy. And this should be done at any cost for the interest of our children. Our media can play a very vital role in creating and raising awareness about the fatal impact of passive smoking upon our children mainly and so in insisting to give up of smoking forever.
(Rifat Zafreen prepared the article for PID)
