I had a friend who smoked.
She had two small children and was married to a nice chap called
Timothy. Nothing surprising about that
you may be thinking. Her young son
David suffered from asthma and his inhalers were a part of his life.
It was hard to see someone young struggle
for breath and when asthma sufferers do not keep a control of their condition,
things turn life threatening. Hard
enough to be disciplined when you are an adult but for young children it
becomes trickier still. Then, David had
an accident and fell off his bicycle and ended up in hospital for many weeks as
it was a compound fracture. Julie, his
mother travelled to every visiting time and took sweets, changes of pyjamas,
toys and of course his asthma medication.
On the second week the nurse in David’s ward told her not to bring the
asthma medication in, as he did not need it.
Perplexed Julie explained, “But he takes it every morning and
evening!” The nurse assured her that
David had not used an inhaler since he arrived in hospital two weeks earlier
and had been fine with not one single asthma attack. Julie was stunned and the nurse asked a surprising question.
“Do you smoke?” Julie replied that she
did, to which the nurse responded, “that is probably what is triggering his
asthma, it is very common.” Julie was
stunned it had never occurred to her that she could be the cause of her son’s
fight for breath. When Daniel came home
there was a sudden change, she no longer smoked in the house only in the garden. After a few weeks it became only the
kitchen. In a month she was back to
smoking in the house as before and David returned to his inhalers. It amazes me how addictions can mean we
sacrifice even our nearest and dearest to them.
The smoking ban which came into
force in public places in July 2007 has resulted already in 1,900 fewer
emergency hospital admissions for asthma patients every year. In other countries, where to the ban has
been brought in both working and public environments the drop has been
40%.
Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of
the British Lung Foundation, added: "This is important new research that
further demonstrates how the smoking ban has dramatically improved people's
lives and made smokers more aware of the harm smoking does to their health.
"Nearly a third of a million
GP appointments each year are caused by children who are the victims of passive
smoking. These horrendous figures show the scale of the problem we are still
facing.”
Emily Humphreys from the health
charity, Asthma UK, has also welcomed the findings: "This is something we
campaigned for, so it is particularly encouraging that there has been a fall in
children's hospital admissions for asthma since its introduction.
"We have long known that
smoking and second hand smoke are harmful - they not only trigger asthma
attacks which put children in hospital but can even cause them to develop the
condition."
I remember David with all his inhalers and breathlessness
and think of all those tiny children fighting for breath due to passive smoking
in homes throughout the world.
But then, one has also to remember all those who die from
the effects of smoking. The World
Health Organisation has brought out a report (The WHO Report on the Global
Tobacco Epidemic) very critical of the lack of action by many countries in
confronting smoking. “The tobacco
epidemic already kills 5.4 million people a year from lung
cancer, heart disease and other illnesses,” said WHO Director-General Margaret
Chan. “Unchecked, that number will increase to more than 8 million a year
by 2030.”
The report also gives one clear explanation for the
lack of action. Nations worldwide
collect more than $200 billion in tobacco taxes annually. Killing people is obviously a profitable
business and the very best business is built on addiction.
