WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY 

                                31 May 2014

Rally flagged off by Smt.Rachel Jacob,Block Panchayath President in the  presenceof Smt.DhanyaSabu,Panchayath President  Kumarakom and Sri.K T Simon,Block Panchayath member. 

Seminar conducted at CHC Conference hall by Dr.Varghese Abraham P.Welcome speech Sibi Augustine HS and vote of thanks by LHI Smt.Knakam 

        For World No Tobacco Day 2014, WHO and partners call on countries to raise taxes on tobacco.

30 April 2014 -- Every year, on 31 May, WHO and partners mark World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. Tobacco kills nearly six million people each year, of which more than 600 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. For World No Tobacco Day 2014, we are calling on countries to raise taxes on tobacco. Unless we act, the epidemic will kill more than 8 million people every year by 2030. More than 80% of these preventable deaths will be among people living in low-and middle-income countries.

How tobacco affects your body

Brain

• Nicotine, the drug that makes tobacco addictive, goes to your brain very quickly.
• Nicotine makes you feel good when you are smoking, but it can make you anxious, nervous, moody, and depressed after you smoke.
• Using tobacco can cause headaches and dizziness.

Mouth

• Tobacco stains your teeth and gives you bad breath.
• Tobacco ruins some of your taste buds, so you won't be able to taste your favorite foods as well.
• Tobacco causes bleeding gums (gum disease) and cancers of the mouth and throat.

Heart

• Smoking increases your heart rate and blood pressure and causes heart disease and heart attacks.
• If you try to do activities like exercise or play sports, your heart has to work harder to keep up.

Lungs

• Smokers have trouble breathing because smoking damages the lungs.
• If you have asthma, you can have more frequent and more serious attacks.
• Smoking causes a lot of coughing with phlegm (mucous).
• Tobacco can cause emphysema (lung disease) and lung cancer.

Skin

• Smoking causes dry, yellow skin and wrinkles.
• The smell sticks to your skin.

Muscles

• Less blood and oxygen flows to your muscles, which causes them to hurt more when you exercise or play sports.

What Happens When You Quit smoking

• Immediately after quitting smoking, heart rate and blood pressure, which is abnormally high while smoking, begin to return to normal.
• Within a few hours, the level of carbon monoxide, which reduces the blood’s ability to carry oxygen, begins to decline.
• Within a few weeks, circulation improves, you don’t produce as much phlegm, and you don’t cough or wheeze as often.
• The workload on the heart is decreased and cardiac function is improved.
• Food tastes better, and your sense of smell returns to normal.
• Everyday activities no longer leave you out of breath.
• Within several months of quitting, you experience significant improvements in lung function.
• In one year, your risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke is halved.
• In five years, many kinds of cancer, including lung, larynx, mouth, stomach, cervix, bladder, show decline in risk, and that decline approaches the risk of someone who has never smoked.
• Within 10 to 15 years, risk of lung disease, including bronchitis and emphysema, are decreased.
• Conditions such as cataracts, macular degeneration, thyroid conditions, hearing loss, dementia, and osteoporosis are positively affected.
• Nerve endings in the mouth and nose begin to regenerate, improving taste and smell.
• Medications may work better, enabling some to be taken in decreased doses.
• If you’re taking birth control pills, quitting smoking will decrease your chance of heart attack and stroke due to clotting.
• You’ll have decreased risk for impotence and infertility.
• If you’re pregnant, you’ll protect your unborn child from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and low birth weight.
• Years will be added to your life: people who quit smoking, regardless of their age, are less likely than those who continue to smoke to die from smoking-related illness.