It is well known that smoking hurts the lungs, but the harm of smoking to the heart may not be well understood.
There is such a set of data:
Other studies have shown that smokers are 2.2 times more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than non-smokers. Smoking only one cigarette a day increases the risk of coronary heart disease by 74% in men and 119% in women.
So, how on earth is tobacco [sad]?
We invited Professor Hu Dayi, a famous cardiovascular disease expert and president of the China Tobacco Control Association, to see what he said.
The Three Steps of Tobacco [Sad]
1. Smoking (including second-hand smoke) will damage vascular endothelial function and participate in initiating atherosclerosis.
Endothelial cells are very important to protect blood vessels. First of all, they are the most powerful [vasodilator] in our body. If endothelial function is damaged, blood vessels are more prone to spasm and contraction leading to myocardial ischemia.
Secondly, it also has a [barrier] function. Once this barrier function is damaged, garbage in blood vessels, such as cholesterol, will easily deposit on the blood vessel wall, resulting in plaque atherosclerosis, protruding from the lumen and causing vascular stenosis.
This is the first step of tobacco, the destroyer, in carrying out its entire [heart-destroying] plan on you.
2. It is not enough to open the startup procedure alone. It can also promote the progress of atherosclerotic plaque in coronary heart disease.
With the [booster] of tobacco (including second-hand smoke), our vascular plaques, if aided by God, not only grow faster, but also expand their territory and become more diffuse. Tobacco makes vascular diseases change faster, heavier and wider.
Cardiovascular thrombosis
3. Eventually, a large amount of smoking can become the fuse of acute myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death.
A large amount of smoking (including second-hand smoke) can promote thrombosis, causing sudden thrombosis of blood vessels that were originally narrow and not heavy, resulting in complete occlusion of blood vessels, and the body has no time to compensate, eventually leading to massive myocardial infarction or sudden death.
Since then, its entire destruction plan has been successfully implemented, from damaging endothelial function to promoting plaque progress, and finally becoming the last straw to crush camels. The destruction king is present in all three links.
The harm of smoking is delayed and cannot lead to atherosclerosis overnight, but heart disease is fatal and unexpected. Therefore, we should stick to prevention instead of waiting for the incident to happen before dealing with it.
Compared with drugs and exercise, quitting smoking is the fastest and most economical measure to reduce myocardial infarction.
Quit tobacco as soon as possible
Statistics from the World Health Organization show that:
The number of deaths from smoking worldwide is as high as 6 million every year, with an average of 1 person dying of smoking-related diseases every 6 seconds.
According to statistics, the number of smokers in China currently exceeds 300 million, accounting for one third of the world’s smokers. The male smoking rate is as high as 52.9%. The number of deaths caused by smoking each year has exceeded 1 million, exceeding the total number of deaths caused by AIDS, tuberculosis, traffic accidents and suicide.
On average, one in two smokers dies of tobacco-related diseases, and the average life span of smokers is 10 years shorter than that of non-smokers.
These are by no means alarmist talk. Faced with such a severe tobacco environment, the campaign of banning smoking, controlling smoking and quitting smoking is imminent.
The sooner the better. Research shows that quitting smoking before the age of 35 can avoid 90% of heart diseases caused by smoking.
In 2015, on the G672 train from Sanmenxia to Zhengzhou, a smoker suffered a myocardial infarction. Professor Hu Dayi, who was on the same train, saved his life in time. Afterwards, he said:
[Health is your greatest responsibility to your family. Quitting smoking is to fulfill your responsibility to your family.]
Besides personal wishes, quitting smoking is also very important due to the influence of social environment.
To reduce the smoking rate and heart diseases, it is necessary for the government to take the lead and participate in various measures to stop smoking and control smoking, thus forming a consensus in the whole society that smoking is harmful to health.
To promote the process of tobacco control and protect heart health, there are many articles on cigarette case packaging.
The government can take various measures to stop smoking and control smoking. For example:
The enactment of laws and regulations on the complete smoke-free public places;
Raise the price and tax of cigarettes so that the poor and young people cannot afford cigarettes.
Cigarette packets on health warnings of tobacco hazards.
Among them, the graphic warning that tobacco is harmful to health and leads to serious consequences such as black heart and lung, impotence, lower limb amputation, etc. is printed on cigarette packets, which has been verified by many countries to be very effective in helping smokers to quit smoking.
China joined the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003 and entered into force in China on January 9, 2006. Cigarette packets on graphic warnings are international obligations that should be fulfilled.
Unfortunately, 13 years after the Convention entered into force in our country, cigarette case packaging has [evolved] more and more exquisite.
Cigarette packets in other countries look like this:
Some Tobacco Packaging Abroad
At present, 118 countries/jurisdictions in the world have required the use of picture-based health warnings, covering 58% of the world’s population. However, our country is still taking an implicit route, only writing “Tobacco is harmful to health” in very inconspicuous small words, which has little effect at all.
If these eye-catching figures that are harmful to health are placed on cigarette packs, 300 million smokers can be reminded of the health hazards of tobacco all the time every day, which can effectively urge them to quit smoking.
About Printing Warning Pictures on Tobacco Packaging
- One picture is worth a thousand words, and pictures can convey more influential information. The larger the picture size, the more effective a measure. If the tobacco industry strongly resists it, the more obvious the benefits to public health will be.
Tobacco is harmful to health, who will say? Of course, doctors have to say it, but it is not enough to rely solely on doctors, and cigarette case packaging has to be said.