How to quit smoking

It is difficult for a person to stop smoking who is smoking for a longtime. It’s ultimately a person who is deciding to smoke or not to smoke. A person starts smoking because of several reasons. It may be because of influence from his friends, family, and media. For example, a boy grows up and he sees his father or any other people around him smoking, he gets a false belief that he also will smoke when he grows up. Smoking cannot be prevented by law. Already there are enough laws that say ‘no smoking in public places’. But they are of no use. Nothing is being done effectively from the govt. authorities to prevent smoking. Nobody will quit smoking if the government passes a rule one fine morning. Instead of making laws, they should conduct awareness programs to prevent smoking. The programs should be conducted in schools, colleges and organizations. Government should monitor the process to see that it is conducted in the same manner. It should be handled by doctors and other knowledgeable persons from the respective fields. They should relate the facts with examples of persons who are affected by severe smoking habits and photos of affected parts. They make them people aware that this habit not only affects them, but also the passive smokers.

The cigarette companies can contribute a lot more to this problem. Instead of writing “CIGARETTE SMOKING IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH”, the cover should display “CIGARETTE SMOKING IS DANGEROUS TO LIFE!” The tobacco companies should do more CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs to create the awareness among people to reduce smoking. They should display pictures of affected people to illustrate in the awareness programs to project the seriousness of the issue. Recent studies conducted reveal that women smokers are increasing. If pregnant women have the habit of smoking it affects the baby also. So counseling should be done in these cases and proper awareness should be created to quit smoking. Another threat is the increasing number of smoking youth. Youngsters should be made aware to quit this ‘killer habit’ as they are the country’s next generation. And they should take initiative to spread the awareness among society and people to stay away from smoking so that we can create a smoke free nation.