A day-long academic programme for higher education faculty members was in progress at a premier management institute in the capital city of God's Own Country. To help drive home the diversity of human perceptions, the resource person sought individual and quick responses for a common set of questions.
The first question was, 'XXX is a heavy smoker. How many does he smoke a day?'. Assumably, the responses were varied from the mixed group of smokers and non-smokers and fell within the range of 5-40 cigarettes a day. A lady participant described a heavy smoker as one who smoked '2 packets a day'. To which, the resource person asked her if she knew how many cigarettes were there in a packet and she replied 'I don't know'.
What emerges from this anecdote is that a good portion of people (smokers and non-smokers) are unaware of the relationship between the quantity smoked and its impact on health.
An interesting research that appeared in the British Medical Journal based on calculations of averages concludes that smoking one cigarette reduces a smoker's life by 11 minutes.
Extending the calculation further, a person who smokes 5 cigarettes a day for an year of 365 days stand to have a life reduction of approximately 14 days! A person who smokes 40 cigarettes (higher end of our discussion group) for the same period will lose life to the tune of approximately 112 days!!
Another study conducted in Norway covering 23,521 men and 19,201 women, aged 35–49 years has found that "smoking 1–4 cigarettes per day was associated with a significantly higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease and from all causes, and from lung cancer in women".
'Light' or 'heavy', smokers have no health reprieve!
The first question was, 'XXX is a heavy smoker. How many does he smoke a day?'. Assumably, the responses were varied from the mixed group of smokers and non-smokers and fell within the range of 5-40 cigarettes a day. A lady participant described a heavy smoker as one who smoked '2 packets a day'. To which, the resource person asked her if she knew how many cigarettes were there in a packet and she replied 'I don't know'.
What emerges from this anecdote is that a good portion of people (smokers and non-smokers) are unaware of the relationship between the quantity smoked and its impact on health.
An interesting research that appeared in the British Medical Journal based on calculations of averages concludes that smoking one cigarette reduces a smoker's life by 11 minutes.
Extending the calculation further, a person who smokes 5 cigarettes a day for an year of 365 days stand to have a life reduction of approximately 14 days! A person who smokes 40 cigarettes (higher end of our discussion group) for the same period will lose life to the tune of approximately 112 days!!
Another study conducted in Norway covering 23,521 men and 19,201 women, aged 35–49 years has found that "smoking 1–4 cigarettes per day was associated with a significantly higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease and from all causes, and from lung cancer in women".
'Light' or 'heavy', smokers have no health reprieve!
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