One of the leading causes of death worldwide is smoking. Smoking leads to serious disease and disability and it harms nearly every organ of the body.
Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic
bronchitis. In addition, smoking increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye disease as well as problem of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis. Smoking is also well known cause for erectile dysfunction in males. About 77 million African adults currently smoke. Moreover, over 16 million Americans are currently living with disease caused by smoking. Tobacco use worldwide leads to nearly 6 million deaths per year, and current trend suggested that it will lead to 8 million deaths annually by 2030. However, governments take less action regarding the problem of tobacco smoking. Perhaps, due to huge amount of money received as taxes from tobacco industries. In the United States for instance, a fiscal year, 2015, states will collect $25.6 billion from tobacco taxes and legal settlements but will only spend $490.4 million, less than 2% on prevention and cessation programs.Meanwhile, tobacco industry spends billions of dollars every year on advertisements and promotions of its product. In 2012, $9.17 billion was spent on advertisements and promotions of cigarette, i.e. over $25 million daily, or beyond $1 million every single hour. Price discount of the product, account for 85% of all cigarette marketing. These are discounts paid to cigarette wholesalers and retailers, in order to reduce price of the product to facilitate consumption. “I wish the governments would declare cigarette illegal” said one cigarette smoker, Obaid Mohammed Idriss, a resident of Khartoum, the Capital of Sudan. According to him, almost every cigarette smoker is willing to quit, which seems extremely difficult and to some extent impossible. Due to lack of cessation programs in the region. Research has confirmed that coloured people find it extremely difficult to quit smoking compared to white race. This phenomenon is one of the phenomena that need urgent attention by every government across the world. However, as taxes from tobacco industries supply our governments with huge income, there is no possibility for most governments taking serious actions against smoking. Till perhaps, the day miracle comes down from above and touch the hearts of those government officials, responsible for eradication of this particular deaths trade. Until then, billions of people will continue to fall victims of deaths, caused by smoking related diseases.
