Smoking a Cigarette Stick Reduces Lifespan by 11 Seconds – Health Expert

BY NDIMUH B. SHANCHO

“Cigarette smoking is a serious public health hazard. Nicotine is the drug present in cigarette and one stick of cigarette contains about 4000 chemicals.  When you smoke a stick of cigarette, it reduces your life by 11 seconds,” Mr. Kwallar Rene, Supervisor of CBC Health Services Adolescent and Young Adult Programme, and Youth Network for Health told Voice of Nature News in an interview recently.

Beside reducing lifespan, the medical practitioner said there are about 100 types of cancer today with cigarette smoking alone being the cause of about 17.  “Smoking is dangerous and kills more than HIV and all other STIs. Cigarette smoking leads to lung cancer and other forms of cancer around the world because when you smoke cigarette, it goes to the blood capillaries, affects your respiratory organs, leads to intestinal problems, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia and a whole lot of issues. It also leads to eye diseases, sexual problems, eye diseases, miscarriages, etc.,” he added.

Conscious of these deadly effects, the Cameroon government has even obliged the American tobacco company to write on the package “cigarette smoking seriously damages your health”. That action by the government, according to Mr. Kwalla, is communicating to smokers that cigarette is a poison, “but because of whatever reason, people still smoke”.

As a way out of this health hazard, which many have become addicted to, the CBC Health Services worker recommended education and sensitization on the consequences of smoking. “The first thing is information. Information is power; when you are informed, you are transformed. When you are informed, take an intentional and informed decision and when you do so, actually throw away anything that can make you feel like smoking and then get connected to people who can support you, trust in the Lord for His enablement,” he beseeched smokers.

Mr. Kwalla added that when one stops smoking there are a lot of benefits; it saves money and you are free from the risk of stroke, cancer of the lungs and a couple of things.