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It's Your Right To Know What You're Smoking

Author: Dr. Atluri Sriman Narayana
by Dr. Atluri Sriman Narayana
Posted: May 31, 2016

Buddha through his noble eightfold path advocated the principle of moderation and taught his disciples to avoid the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification. Everything in moderation is said to be good for one’s health. For that matter, even alcohol is good for one’s health if it consumed in moderation. But that does not seem to be the case with smoking. Even casual smoking can do an irreparable damage to our bodies.

Chemist and Scientist Jeffery Wigand in 1996, appeared on the show the 60 minutes on the CBS network and revealed the world that the popular tobacco companies in the USA are deliberately manipulating the tobacco blend to increasing the nicotine levels in the cigarettes. Mr. Wigand was appointed by the British cigarette manufacturing company Brown and Williamson.

Jeffery Wigand was pressured from the company and faced anonymous death threats. Despite that, he went on to become one of the most famous corporate whistleblowers in USA and Europe. He revealed the secrets of the big tobacco companies to the grand jury as well as on the show the 60 minutes.

The risk he took was to save the lives of many who happen to smoke cigarettes for recreational purposes. Mr. Wigand's suggestion was to intimate people, what kind of chemicals the people are exposed to when they are smoking the cigarettes.

If tobacco companies oblige to the desperate pleas of the scientists, chemists and social activists across the world, the size of the current package may not be sufficient to list out the risk of smoking a cigarette.

Lung cancer and heart-related issues are obvious risks that are associated with smoking. Besides that, mood stimulation, poor vision, stained teeth and erectile dysfunction are some of the health complications a person develops over the years of smoking. Also, University of Rochester found that smoking in some people, is responsible for chronic back pain. The chemical properties of tobacco also cause shrinkage in the size of the hippo campus, which is responsible for memory and cognitive abilities. If you consider all above the things, there is not one thing that smoking does which can be deemed productive.

The fight against these tobacco companies is not quite simple. When the Australian government asked the cigarette companies to change the packaging the cigarette companies filed a legal case against the Australian companies. Though the cigarette companies lost the case, they further went a step ahead and filed a legal case against Australia in the international court of Law.

In India, Mr. Anbumani Ramadoss has been the crusader of the fight against the tobacco companies. A graduate from the London school of Economics and the current Member of Parliament is pushing the government to alter their position and frame stringent laws against the marketing and the packaging of the cigarettes. As the union minister in Manmohan Singh's cabinet, he brought stringent regulations the sale of tobacco products on the whole and not just on the cigarettes. The pictorial warnings have become mandatory today in India.

Today India mulling over increasing the pictorial warning sizes to the cigarette packets to over 85%. The argument that the developing nation like India cannot afford to meddle with 40,000 crore market size of the tobacco industry does hold some value. However, it negates the fact that the expenditure to tackle tobacco-caused diseases was over 1,10,00 crores.

The aggressive and passive smokers have every right to pursue their choice of addiction and none of the above arguments negate this fact. However, it is an imperative for the tobacco companies to extend their empathy towards their loyal consumers by helping them know what exactly they are consuming.

About the Author

Atluri Sriman Narayana is an Indian dental surgeon,He founded the Sai Oral Health Foundation.He was honored again by the Government of india in 2002, with the fourth highest india civilian of padma shri.

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Author: Dr. Atluri Sriman Narayana

Dr. Atluri Sriman Narayana

Member since: May 05, 2016
Published articles: 5

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