(New Beginnings, No.5; also The Nationalist, 8 September 2000)
In Ireland an average of 11 people died of tuberculosis every day in the late 1940’s. People of an older generation remember TB with horror as a nightmare scenario. But currently more than 16 Irish people die daily from smoking-related illnesses.
One Irish person dies of a smoking-related illness every ninety minutes; that’s about 13 times the number killed in road accidents. In fact, the number of Irish people who die annually of smoking-related diseases is six times the combined number of fatalities from road accidents, work accidents, murder, drugs, suicide and AIDS. It’s over 6,000 a year. Smoking causes 90% of lung cancer deaths, 25% of those from heart disease, and 75% from bronchitis or emphysema. Those who die lose an average of between 10 and 15 years of their potential life. About 90% of people who get lung cancer are smokers, as are some 75% of emphysema sufferers. Passive smokers have a 35% increased risk of getting lung cancer.
In case anyone thinks this is all hype, here is information from a surprising source:
‘There is an overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases in smokers… There is no “safe” cigarette… Cigarette smoking is addictive…’ (From Philip Morris, one of the largest-cigarette manufacturers in the world, on its Website on 14 October 1999.)
In the year 2000, 31% of Irish adults smoke, up from 28% in 1994, the increase mainly among women; and 80% of adult smokers began before the age of 18.
A survey carried out in 1995 showed that among young people in Ireland, 34% of 15-17 year olds smoke, relatively more girls than boys being current smokers. And social workers regard tobacco (together with alcohol) as the “gateway” drugs that lead to illicit drug-taking.
Tobacco taxes brought £721 million to the exchequer in 1997, but this was outweighed by the loss of earnings and the cost of medical care. The Irish tobacco industry employs 1,000 people and the market is worth £1 billion a year.
Is there any good news among all this gloom and doom? Yes, there is. Compared with continuing smokers, those who quit smoking before the age of 50 have one-half the risk of dying in the following 15 years. And giving up smoking at any age enhances life expectancy.
Read Information on Health and Smoking, Health Promotion Unit, Department of Health, Dublin, 1997.
Kathy Sheridan, “Old habits die hard”, in The Irish Times, 24 June 2000, page 1 of the Weekend section.
ESPAD, the European School Project on Alcohol and Drugs, 1995.