How Beneficial is Tobacco Smoking?

"They are very fond of smoking and they inhale the smoke, which intoxicates them and makes them ill, but they keep on doing it" - Gabriel Franchere

Tobacco is a very important leaf, just as so many people love it, much more people appear to hate it. It commands so much interest from both sides of the divide. Those who chose to love it can't stop enjoying the euphoric feeling they get from puffing. Lovers of the leaf cut across socioeconomic strata, age, race, religion, profession and any societal grouping you may think of. It's a wonderful leaf. A friend once described it as "a gift from above". Others who dislike have spent so much money in conducting research on and preaching to people on how tobacco is one of the greatest killers of mankind. It's a product used by the most productive age group (for consumption), medical scientists (for research), businessmen (for maximum profits), just name it.
I don't know which side of the divide you are, but let's kindly review some indisputable facts together;

Tobacco leaf contains the almighty NICOTINE, the substance that causes smokers to continue to smoke. More so, smoke from tobacco products like CIGARETTE has been found to contain over 4000 chemicals including carbon monoxide (same gas produced by automobile exhaust pipes), hydrogen cyanide, carbon dioxide, DDT (used as rat poison), chloroform, formaldehyde, benzene, etc. These chemical contents not only have toxic effects but over 60 of them have been demonstrated to have mutagenic and carcinogenic effects.

Why is Cigarette addictive?
When someone smokes, nicotine gets absorbed into the lungs and reaches the brain within only ten seconds. The nicotine component causes a release of dopamine, neurotransmitters that carry information across synaptic clefts of the brain neurones, acts on the mesolimbic-dopamine circuit (the brain's pleasure center). This center also seems to reward activities that increase the likelihood of survival, such as sex and eating. Activation of this pleasure/reward circuit also causes a cascade of biochemical changes in the brain cells, creating memory of the event and the motivation to do it again, hence the setup for addiction.


What other effects does smoking have on the body
The tar gets deposited in the lung tissue causing the darkening; carbon monoxide competitively displaces oxygen from binding with haemoglobin (blood), this means that less oxygen gets to the body tissues for use; hydrogen cyanide causes the dis-functioning of the lung cilia - tiny hairs that help clean the lungs by moving foreign substances out. It raises the blood pressure and heart rate, causes narrowing of the tiny blood vessels and reduction of blood flow to the heart, kidneys and other vital organs of the body. It weakens the immune system and predisposes people in TB-endemic countries to develop tuberculosis disease.

Furthermore, cigarette smoking has been found to cause erectile dysfunction, irregular menstrual cycle and other fertility problems. Even innocent children are not spared, as the smoke they inhale from the environment predisposes them to having Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). It is also the ultimate risk factor for various types of cancer especially cancer of the lungs, esophagus, stomach, blood, etc

Fig. 1 - the internal organs of a chronic cigarette smoker during an autopsy

Smoking leads to many other disease conditions including emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, gastric ulcer, and a poor post-operative prognostic factor.

Does smoking affect the society?
Behaviourally, tobacco smoking promotes unhealthy acts such as drunkenness, unsafe sex, rape, violence which inadvertently leads to increase in the incidence of HIV/AIDS, delirium, suicide, homicide, road traffic injuries or related deaths (from drunk-driving), etc. Anyone in the society is affected directly or indirectly. When a "high" driver hits the road, his life, those of the passengers and other road-users are also at risk. These have both health and economic consequences.

Benefits of tobacco
What smokers consider as benefits are just the transient mood-altering effects of the drug. The producers of this killer drug can give a thousand and one economic benefits and the employment opportunities it creates. I hope one can sponsor a holistic and minimally biased comparative analysis of the economic and demerits of tobacco across the globe.

Why do people smoke?

Fig. 2 - compare the lungs of a non-smoker to that of a smoker

Many people start smoking from teen age and usually results from peer influence. Young people start smoking to feel that the "belong" to the group "wey dey run things" or as a way of developing their "swags". Most smokers are aware of the dangers the habit constitutes to their health, perhaps they don't know that it also constitutes danger to the health of their loved ones around them who don't smoke. For instance, studies in America shows that smoking kills over 440,000 Americans annually and about 50,000 non-smokers die every year from lung cancer and heart disease caused by 'side-stream smoke' (indirect smoking).

Even in developing countries, there has been rising cases of death from cancer. Though not all those cases of cancer were linked to cigarette smoking, they may not be unconnected with the unchecked pollution of the environment from tobacco smoke and industrial pollutants. While efforts to curb smoking was being intensified (mainly by Public Health practitioners) in the United States, Nigeria offered license to British American Tobacco to build one of her largest factories in Ibadan. With increased availability of the products and non-existent or poorly implemented regulatory measures; awareness of the dangers of smoking alone cannot stop people from engaging in the habit.

Nigerian government's effort so far to control smoking

The most successfully implemented anti-smoking policy in Nigeria is the ban on advertisement of tobacco products. Ironically, the policy came a few years after same government granted license to British American Tobacco to establish a factory. BAT had long completed building a very big factory in Ibadan, Oyo State. Their arrival into the market was very noticeable as they bought over the front pages of all national dailies to advertise their products and tobacco jingles were played on radio and television stations almost at 5 minutes intervals.
The government has also enforced the inscription on every cigarette pack "The Federal Ministry of Health warns that smokers are liable to die young" on the packet of every tobacco product. Although no known study has been reported on how many persons this message has persuaded from engaging in or quitting smoking, I am convinced that at best, any  positive effect would be infinitesimally small and insignificant.
More so, the ban on smoking in Public Places in Abuja, the federal capital territory only ends on the media as it is not being enforced anywhere. People still smoke on the roads, gardens and parks, and even in offices.

What we can do
A combination of the various psychological approaches to influence behavioural changes may appear ideal but studies have shown that its impact is negligible even in the United States society where such has been implemented. Rather than concentrate so much futile efforts on convincing chronic smokers to quit, or using much of our scarce resources to institute smoking-withdrawal programs, it would be more beneficial to stop the things that make people to engage in smoking and channel other resources to strengthening our health system so that people can stop dying from curable ailments.

I strongly recommend that the Nigerian government has to make policies and implement programs and activities based on Geoffery Rose's curve shifters by;
* Reduction in the Accessibility of tobacco products
This could be done by increased taxation on tobacco products, restriction of sales to young people lower than 18 years of age as well as stoppage of sales by 'mallams' who serve as gates-men in our neighborhoods.
*Provision of Anti-Smoking Physical structures
British American Tobacco should be made to reduce the amount of nicotine each stick of cigarette contains. Relaxation centers should designate a place for smoking so that non-smokers would not be put at risk by the pollution from the smoke.
*Provision of Anti-Smoking Social structures
The ban on smoking in public places should be enforced in FCT and states governments should make similar policies in the various states.
*Media Campaigns against smoking
Although the ban on advertisement of tobacco products remains in force, government should fund anti-smoking campaigns in the media. Popular Nollywood artistes and musicians can be used for the adverts. More so, script writers and producers in Nollywood should be encouraged to do movies that would discourage smoking.

It is an incontrovertible fact that tobacco smoking is not beneficial to the body. It is a killer and must be avoided. And various governments in Africa must begin now to stem the tide as it has continued worsening our health indices, in addition to the infectious diseases. Meanwhile, opposing views are welcome with factual arguments. Let's make our air clean enough for the use of our body.