Cigarette smoking is by far the most toxic habit now being
used by people throughout the world and it is more addictive
than heroine or cocaine! If you are a smoker you absolutely
must stop -- now!
Smoking is not a pleasure -- it is a compulsive feeding of an
addictive behavior and is indeed the single, most deleterious
thing you can do to your health. It will effect every single
cell and organ of your body.
When smokers inhale the smoke goes directly in the richly
vascular lung tissue and then directly into the blood stream
and on to every one of the trillions of cells in your body.
The results an increase in the incidence of almost every
degenerative disease.
The link between smoking and diseases of the lungs such as
lung cancer and emphysema is well known. Smoking has also
been implicated in hypertension, cardiovascular disease --
stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis -- complications of pregnancy
and every form of degenerative disease. It also depresses the
immune system, weakening the bodies natural resistance to
disease. Thirty percent of cancers are due to tobacco.
Dr. Sohn Bailar M.D. Ph.D. former editor in chief the
Journal of the National Cancer Institute states that
lung cancer and many others are going up because of tobacco,
and cancer treatments can do little to stem the death toll.
Bailar states that there is a long lead time between the
initiation of smoking as a regular habit and the appearance
of lung cancer. Bailar said, "It may be twenty-thirty-forty
years or more for some people. So what we are seeing now is
the effect in the rise in tobacco use several decades ago."
So why do people smoke? Most people known about the risks but
people who smoke generally begin in their teens and early
adulthood -- sometimes even before that -- when they perceive
smoking as something "cool" or rebellious, or as something to
do to fit in with a particular group of their peers. At this
age, most people tend also to feel invincible and immortal,
and genuinely believe that all the well-known dangers of
smoking somehow will not happen to them -- or, at least, are
something to worry about only in the distant future.
Unfortunately, once you have smoked for any period of time
quitting can be very very difficult. The primary reason for
this is nicotine, the active ingredient in cigarette smoking
and -- according to the World Health Organization (WHO) of
the United Nations -- the most important world wide toxin now
being used by hundreds of millions of people, despite the
above mentioned evidence and well over several hundred
thousand articles in medical journals. The tobacco industry
has persisted in marketing this poison world wide.
In 1994, the American Medical Association Executive Vice
President James Todd writes a scathing attack on tobacco
"research." Research foundations funded by tobacco companies,
he wrote, are used by the tobacco industry as a part of its
overall public relations strategy with two main goals in
mind. First tobacco research funds help the industry convince
policy makers and the public that they have legitimate
projects under way that continue to search for links between
smoking and ill health -- and that the jury is still out on
the controversy. Second, the industry uses the funds to
silence universities and researchers, and to link prestigious
institutions with the industry, thus buying respectability.
The situation is so absurd as to be almost incredible. The
bottom line is greed and a complete disregard for the immense
suffering and death of millions of people.
Recently, HaRav Shmuel Wosner, rosh yeshiva of
Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin in Bnei Brak, wrote that the
chachomim have prohibited many things because they are
life endangering.
Anyone who disobeys and says, "I am willing to endanger
myself and it is no one else's affair what I do in these
matters or I am not careful about these matters," would, in other times, be
punished with makkos mardus (Ramban, Mishneh Torah,
Hilchos Rotzeiach, 11:5).
The halacha is therefore obvious that it is completely
forbidden to begin smoking. The Torah definitely requires
parents, teachers, and educators to prevent young people from
smoking.
Advertisements in newspapers and magazines should definitely
be forbidden, in my opinion. The Israeli Ministry of Health
should take the lead as in Sweden, Canada, Denmark, and
elsewhere by heavily taxing cigarettes, and develop a
comprehensive campaign of education in elementary and high
school. It should fully collaborate with WHO and other
countries in stopping this tragic addiction which causes
enormous pain, suffering and death throughout the world --
money and greed should not be the bottom line.
A healthy lifestyle should consist of adequate fresh air,
sunshine, bathing cleanliness, sufficient rest and sleep and
whole natural foods, and the avoidance of cigarettes --
alcohol, drugs, and junk food.
