How Smoking Has Led to 100 Million Deaths in India: What the Future Holds for Public Health

Impact of Smoking in India: A Century of Consequences

100 million people have died over the last 100 years due to smoking in India, says a new study published in the journal Current Science. Furthermore, about 4.52 trillion cigarettes and 40.3 trillion beedis have been manufactured in 100 years, between 1910 and 2010 in India. The study has estimated about 100 million premature deaths in India, which is a result of smoking in the last 100 years, reported Shalini for CNN-IBN.

Historical Production and Consumption

The study revealed that in the first 50 years between 1910 and 1960, more than 52.7 billion cigarettes and 5.5 trillion beedis were produced and smoked. Researchers think that these smokers, by and large, died within the next 40-50 years.

Future Projections and Warnings

However, researchers have warned that the larger part of the epidemic is yet to happen. This is because in the last 50 years (1960 to 2010) smoking rates have increased fourfold and are estimated to cause a large number of deaths in the next 50 years.

Study Author Dr. Nevin Wilson was quoted saying to IBN Live, "Smoking is estimated to cause 78.8 million deaths till 2050." While another study author, Dr. PC Gupta, said that if this trend continues, we will see more than 200 million deaths within this century.

Current Scenario and Health Risks

Currently, India has 111 million smokers, but public health experts caution of a larger health epidemic among the 164 million Indian smokeless tobacco users. Gupta said gutka is known to cause 90 percent of all oral cancers and is responsible for the highest number of young heart attacks.

Please get away from smoking.

Regards

Dear Ramesh, thanks for the post. Even passive smoking kills! Please look at the following thread: https://www.citehr.com/378234-passiv...ing-kills.html

Thanks & Regards,
Sudhir

A good post, sir. Now in our society, smoking has become a status symbol too. I hope at least by seeing this post, people shouldn't smoke. Now even children of age 12 or 13 have started to smoke. I don't know where our culture is heading towards.

Dear Bhardwaj, Sudhir, and Dharani,

First of all, it's not easy to quit smoking nowadays. It's a fashion among school and college students to hold a cigarette in front of their colleagues at tea or coffee shops, thinking it increases their value in school or college.

If it comes to working professionals, they have a reason for smoking. Due to work pressure, they start smoking, hoping it will reduce their stress.

I have asked my friends many times to quit cigarettes, but they never do. I don't want to always advise them to quit, quit, quit. Instead of saying quit, I buy nicotine-free cigarettes whenever I return to India. It's a bit expensive, but this is one of the easiest ways, so they don't need to quit smoking. (But I can't offer nicotine-free cigarettes daily as well.)

Nicotine-Free Cigarettes

Nicotine-free cigarettes were developed to act as an aid in helping smokers stop smoking and break the nicotine addiction and behavioral habits associated with smoking, such as drinking coffee, tea, cocktails, and stressful situations. Control the nicotine intake and effects, and the habits associated with nicotine can also be controlled and eliminated. You'll quit smoking in no time.

Regards,

Dear Raghu, I appreciate your post. However, I completely disagree with you. It is not the work pressure that causes you to smoke; it is the habit. When I was in college, I used to smoke a lot. Once I decided to stop smoking, I stopped immediately. Many people say they will gradually reduce consumption and finally stop smoking. I don't believe in that either. What is essential is self-commitment. I know after someone becomes addicted, it is a bit difficult, but if someone is committed, there are many social bodies that treat this problem.

Thanks & Regards,
Sudhir

Startling Statistics on Smoking

Very startling statistics and grim reality. One who smokes harms oneself and others around.

Regards,
V. Raghunathan
Navi Mumbai

I agree that everyone experiences work pressure in their routine life, but smoking is a very bad choice to alleviate that pressure. I try to influence people around me to quit smoking because I lost my father two years ago due to cancer. We all should strive hard within our reach for a smoke-free environment.

Regards,
Ujjwal Shah
Vadodara, Gujarat