If the findings of a recent study published in Saudi newspapers are true, our society is soon going to face a disaster. The study said that the smoking rate among high school students had increased by 40 percent. In other words, this generation will face a number of smoking-related diseases and disorders in the future.
With this many people smoking, the problems of second hand smoke will also be great and it has been documented that in some cases, second hand smoke is more dangerous. Children who see their parents smoking often grow up to become smokers as well.
What I want to know is where our anti-smoking campaign is. Where are our Health Ministry and its programs?
It seems that all campaigns and programs have no effect at all on smokers or how much they smoke.
It also seems that all it does is make them more stubborn and more insistent about smoking.
I once saw a picture of a young child holding a sign that said, “Father, please do not kill me with smoke”. Why do such signs have so little effect on parents who smoke.
Another problem is the smoking of sheesha, which is very common among both sexes and all classes. One sheesha is the equivalent of 70 cigarettes — and yet people still choose to smoke them. With such thinking, there is little we can do to convince people not to smoke.
