Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Children getting addicted tobacco in adolescence

This article is about the increasing consumption of Tobacco in the teenagers.


My concept to prevent children from TOBACCO consumption
 
Selling of Tobacco to a person under the age of 18 years is a crime and is punishable under the Tobacco Act which is the law in the geographical boundaries of India. Under the Tobacco Act, it is clearly mentioned that there cannot be a cigarette vendor within the vicinity of 200 meters of a school or educational complex. But it is all in the book and reality is quite different. One may seen a board on every tobacco vendor’s stall; “Tobacco products are not to be sold to people below 18 years of age”. But this law is being mocked at thousand times in a day.

As per the healthcare survey a shocking figure has come up that about five million children in India are victims of tobacco consumption. These figure are the tell tale for the easy accessibility of tobacco products to children.

There is a product which is more dangerous than cigarette and the children are getting addicted to it at an alarming rate. Gutka; a mixture of betel nuts and tobacco is a product which can be found anywhere and the cheap rate of the same is more vulnerable. The children have started to consume it as they can just stuff their mouth with it and feel being on top of the world. Whereas to smoke a cigarette they have to first buy a cigarette and then search for an isolated place to smoke. The pungent smell of the cigarette is hard to hide, but if gutka is being consumed, one does not have problem like they have to face in smoking a cigarette.

Recently a survey was conducted in the business capital of India–Mumbai–by the Harvard School of Public Health and the Healis Seksharia Institue for the Public Health in India as reported by Wall Street Journal. Under this survey about 1162 students from the age group of 10 to 17 were surveyed upon. But the results have been most astonishing.

The new and easy available alternatives which are attracting the children mostly the street children, is petrol. One may see many teen aged street children keeping their hands close to their nose. But if one may catch them then you will be surprised that they have cloth soaked in petrol or spirit and they are just inhaling the fumes. This form of addiction is more injurious to health. The fumes settle in the alveoli of the lungs and thus the breathing is highly affected due to this. If the victim is in regular contact with these fumes then the bronchus and the bronchioles are damaged and thus the victim is getting a slow poison more deadly than any other intoxicant.


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