@ Samina Malik
I completely agree with you. I appreciate your comments. After a research and study of some hours on smoking and its hazards, I have been able to write the following article.

Well, the majority in Pakistan smokes flooding almost every public place with male around 40% and female around 7% and I hope you do not mean to suggest by your post quoted above that the non-smokers should migrate from earth to any other place like moon, mars or a newly found Kepler 22 which is thought to be habitable. Anyways thanks for your participation. I also disagree with the reply to the second question of the article. I have addressed you at a place in my following article. Read it carefully as follows:


Smoking

Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke (consisting of particle and gaseous phases) is inhaled. This so-called practice started as early as 5000–3000 BC.

Smoking is the most common method of consuming tobacco, and tobacco is the most common substance smoked. The reason why many people cannot give up smoking even after having known the hazardous effects it has on human health, here is a short account of it.
The agricultural product ( ie tobacco ) is often mixed with additives and then pyrolyzed, thus creating nicotine. The resulting smoke is then inhaled and the active substances absorbed through the alveoli in the lungs. The active substances- functioning as a stimulant or psycho-stimulants, trigger chemical reactions in nerve endings, which heighten heart rate, alertness, and reaction time. Stimulants or psycho-stimulants are the psychoactive drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both. Such stimulants like tobacco affects central and peripheral nervous system directly which in turn releases dopamine and endorphins both neurotransmitters which are often associated with pleasure.
Since smokers develop addiction to such pleasure and brain activeness they find it harder to quit this killing habit and that is the main reason why they take it nonchalantly even if they know that they are not smoking alone but spreading the poison to everybody around them regardless of how nauseating it feels to them. But they should at borrow some sanity at least not harming those around them. The dangers of passive smoking mostly remain unnoticed. Well, if it is because of lack of awareness that behave inconsiderately when smoking in public places then they must the hazardous effects of active and passive smoking. Given below is a sketchy account of the same:

Health hazards of smoking

According to epidemiological researches conducted by WHO and other concerned national organizations the consumption of tobacco is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally. Smoking is practised by billions of people across the globe and billions of them die every day because of the diseases caused by this deadly activity. It kills nearly 6 million people around the world and causes hundreds of billions of dollars of economic damage worldwide each year.The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 84 million people will die of cancer between 2005 and 2015 without intervention.
It is a major risk factor for the diseases like heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) including emphysema and chronic bronchitis, and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer).
It also causes peripheral vascular disease and hypertension. The effects depend on the number of years that a person smokes and on how much the person smokes. Starting smoking earlier in life and smoking cigarettes higher in tar increases the risk of these diseases.
Tobacco does provide a temporary pleasure but the hazardous effects it has on human health and its environment is far greater than that. Smoke contains several carcinogenic pyrolytic products that bind to DNA and cause many genetic mutations. There are over 19 known chemical carcinogens in cigarette smoke. Tobacco also contains nicotine as we have already discussed, which is a highly addictive psychoactive chemical. When tobacco is smoked, nicotine causes physical and psychological dependency. That is why smokers have to smoke every time they do any work which involves them mentally. Once they develop such dependency it becomes hard for them to quit it. Tobacco use is a significant factor in miscarriages among pregnant smokers, it contributes to a number of other threats to the health of the fetus such as premature births and low birth weight and increases by 1.4 to 3 times the chance for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Some scientific studies show that exposure to cigarette smoke in the womb may reduce the fetal brain's ability to recognize hypoxic conditions, thus increasing the chance of accidental asphyxiation- a disease with deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from being unable to breathe normally. Smoking causes impotency 85% higher in male smokers that non-smokers and it also causes female infertility. The list goes on and on of the repercussions you have of smoking.

Let me now just provide a sketchy account of the passive smoking as follows:


Passive smoking


As we know Passive Smoking also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or Second-hand smoke (SHS) occurs when tobacco smoke permeates any environment, causing its inhalation by people within that environment.

Health Hazards of Passive Smoking

Passive smoking is more injurious to human health. The diseases caused by second-hand smoke are as caused by active or direct smoking. Included in these diseases are cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, respiratory diseases, breast cancer, brain tumour, ENT diseases, cognitive impairment and dementia, pregnancy defects like low birth weight and premature birth, worsening of asthma, allergies and skin disorders etc.
Another most dangerous health hazard of passive smoking is the childhood exposure to it which involves an increased risk of the development of adult-onset Atopic dermatitis.
According to a report given by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare and Bloomberg Philanthropies passive smoking causes about 603,000 death a year, which represents 1% of the world's death. Similarly many researches worldwide have proved that risks of passive smoking to non-smokers may be even greater than the estimates provided by WHO or any other oragaization.


Smoking in Islam- is it Haram?

The discussions have proliferated over whether it is haram in Islam. In past many Islamic scholars declared smoking to be Makrooh based on the knowledge they had but science has advanced today and many scholars are unanimous on the point that is it is prohibited in Islam. As it is a lengthy discussion, I will just boil it down in the words of a Holy Quranic verse (Surah Al Baqarah Chapter 2, Verse 195) which says "Do not make your own hands the cause of your own destruction".

Now let us just throw little light on smoking trends in Pakistan:

Smoking trends in Pakistan

Tobacco smoking in Pakistan is legal, but banned under certain circumstances. Smoking habit is mostly found in the youth of Pakistan. However, a cause of concern is the narrowing of this gender difference in younger smokers. The smoking trends among men in Pakistan is more than 35% as against the females around 7%.
The smoking trend has reduced in many parts of the world by imposing bans to save the people from its hazards but in Pakistan it is on the rise instead.
According to Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-smokers Health Ordinance Ordinance 2002, you are not allowed to smoke at certain places like auditorium buildings, health institutions, amusement centers, restaurants, public offices, court buildings, cinema halls, conference and seminar halls, eating houses, hotel lounges, other waiting lounges, libraries, bus-stations, sports stadiums, educational institutions and other places as public places. Though the law has been approved by government, yet it is to be implemented in true sense of terms. As a step towards safeguarding the health of its citizens, the administration conducted a campaign against smoking on public transport. However, they fail to take action against those hotels, motels, restaurants and hospitals in the capital violating existing no-smoking zones. Mr Amigo says he hardly finds any place to smoke because it is banned. The case he has narrated may be a rare one, but I observe an otherwise situation. Despite smoking in public places and on public transport being a punishable offence, transporters and passengers alike are observed violating the law indiscriminately. Similarly, smokers are seen openly violating the law in a majority of the restaurants, as owners have not yet established separate smoking zones on their premises. It has been learned that the management of above mentioned public places in Pakistan have not yet constructed smoking zones, due to which non-smokers in these places had to cope with a lot of difficulties. Apart from hotels, educational institutions and hospitals have also made no efforts towards implementing this law by creating separate smoking zones. Though local authorities have failed to implement the ordinance at hotels, hospitals and educational institutions, they have also not yet established smoking zones at major bus-stands of the cities either. Due to the absence of smoking zones, people who do not smoke become victims of poisonous fumes too. Because of a lack of awareness and poor check by authorities, people openly smoke in public parks as the authorities concerned, have so far launched no awareness campaign in this regard. Interestingly, Pakistan is signatory of the mulch-sectoral and multidimensional Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Under provisions of the FCTC, the country is required to bring its laws and policies in line with global conventions, something which still needs to be done.

In reply to the question whether smoking should be banned on public places, I would say it has already been banned, the only thing we need is to implement the law. To reiterate it, smoking should be banned on public places to enjoy the following benefits:

Benefits of banning smoking in public places

Exposure to secondhand smoke causes arteries to constrict and promotes blood in the heart to clot, making it especially dangerous for those with existing heart disease. Cities in the West that have banned public smoking have seen admissions of acute coronary syndromes (heart attack and related diseases) drop by one-third within three years of implementing complete smoking bans. If such measures are adopted in Pakistan, similar if not greater benefits can be seen and many lives will be saved. Other benefits include reduced asthma exacerbation, decreased respiratory infections in children and the elderly and there is evidence to suggest that lung cancer rates can also decline. Pakistan currently tops the chart for sudden stillbirths of which a common cause is exposure to secondhand smoke amongst pregnant women. Another apprehension is that smoking bans will be harmful to the economy as businesses will lose out. Evidence from around the world indicates that overall, there are no statistically significant losses for venue owners and any short-term loss to the economy will be off-set by substantial gains in the long run through reduced healthcare costs by decreased secondhand smoke exposure and reduced tobacco consumption.

The benefits of smoking bans are not limited to non-smokers only. Evidence indicates that an overwhelming majority of smokers wish to quit at some point in their lives and smoking bans have proven to be one of the most effective ways of helping smokers quit. By decreasing the opportunities to light a cigarette, consumption declines and cessations rates rise. In fact, comprehensive smoking bans help decrease overall tobacco consumption by nearly a quarter, thus providing protection to the health of even the smoker.

Economics, politics and debates on liberalism aside, smoking bans are a moral imperative. Tobacco in all its forms is dangerous, the smoke it produces is lethal. It claims four times as many lives every year in Pakistan than the entire death toll from terrorism of the last 10 years combined, all of which are preventable. And it does so silently. The government may or may not be able to enforce this law and we can choose to ignore it the same way we can choose to break a red traffic light, the onus is upon us to abide by it. By banning public smoking we can send out a simple message — this is a practice that is no longer acceptable in our society.


I am sure the information conveyed through foregoing writing will benefit many readers.

Regards

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