Smoking is the best way to bad health. Today
half the men and a quarter of the women in the world smoke on the
average.
Some people think that there is not much
sense in refraining from smoking, since the inhabitants of many cities and even
villages breathe air contaminated with industrial and automobile wastes. They
are very wrong. Vehicle exhaust gases are harmful in themselves, but a smoking
driver is subjected to something far more dangerous.
Take another example: according to WHO (World
Health Organisation) figures, the sick rate is higher among smoking workers of
the heavy engineering, chemical, ceramic, mining, building, cement and rubber
industries.
The harm of tobacco smoke on women should be
especially emphasized. In particular, smoking may affect the course of
pregnancy. Smoking women may bring into the world crippled or abnormal
children.
The evidence that exposure to other people's smoke
is dangerous to health is now incontrovertible. The exposure to secondhand smoke
is a serious health risk to non-smokers, increasing their chance of contracting
lung cancer and heart disease. The degree of risk depends on the extent and
duration of exposure. Particularly there is a high risk
among workers in the hospitality industries (bar staff, casino workers and other
employees in workplaces where smoking is routine). It is estimated that
secondhand smoke causes one premature death a week.
In the past few years some measures have been taken
to reduce smoking. There has been a growing awareness of the dangers of smoking
throughout the world. The anti-smoking campaigns launched in a number of
countries have brought about extensive public censure of this harmful habit and
a decrease in the number of smokers among some groups of the
population.
In our country the campaign to beat the cigarette
habit has acquired a purposeful nature. Special legislative, medical and
educational measures are being worked out.
Instructions forbid smoking among schoolchildren.
Lessons on the harm of smoking have been included in courses of the anatomy,
physiology and hygiene, the sale of cigarettes to minors is prohibited. Warnings
against the harm of smoking are printed on packets of cigarette
brands.
The ministries of railways, civil aviation, merchant
marine and culture have worked out and now implement measures for regulating,
limiting and restricting smoking in long-distance and suburban trains, planes,
on sea vessels, in theatres, clubs, etc.
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