The irresponsibility of adolescence and free availability of cigarettes were the reasons why I started smoking. I believe it’s just your bad luck to start it, and your greatest fortune to give it up, said a friend who finally stopped smoking after 12 years.
A decade ago, it was seen as a cool thing. I smoked 2, 3 packets a day and blamed heavy work schedules, stress at home, societal pressures, lack of a good friend circle, etc, for my smoking addiction. I struggled to keep smoking out of my life till I suffered a heart attack. It wasn’t easy but it seemed worth it as I finally ended up choosing my life over smoking. It takes extreme adversity to come to terms with our wrongdoings.
This story would seem relatable to most smokers, as smoking addiction and its Ill effects are well known to smokers. In later stages of life, though, many of these smokers aren’t lucky enough to live long, or even if they do, their life is crippled with misfortunes.
Observance of 31st May as No Tobacco Day has not been merely an awareness campaign but a reminder of the fact that smoking tobacco in any form has been the leading cause of death and also of many respiratory disorders, like TB, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc, which people have either ignored or related its cause to pollution, climate, hereditary traits or even to superstitions.
With Covid-19 infection spreading every day and killing hundreds and thousands, it wouldn’t be amiss to suggest that most of the morbidity and casualties arising out of Covid-19 are of those with underlying lung diseases. Consequently, it must not be hard for the wise to connect these dots of misfortune that exist because of smoking tobacco.
For those who follow and believe facts and statistics more than my story, it’s prudent to refer to a study titled “Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease”, published in October 2020. It lists COPD as the second leading cause of death in India. Another study published in The Lancet medical journal cites smoking as one of the leading causes of COPD in India. Now, perhaps, it shouldn’t be hard enough to draw a logical inference.
Smoking tobacco in any form is dangerous and it doesn’t need any peer reviewed studies to substantiate the fact that smokers can be more vulnerable to contracting Covid-19 infection. It has been proven beyond disbelief that smokers are at high risk because of high incidence of respiratory infections, high prevalence of progressive respiratory problems, impaired lung functions due to prolonged smoking, and weakened immunity due to rusty lungs.
The WHO’s theme slogan of “Commit to Quit Smoking” could not have come at better time than this year as the world reels under Covid-19. Shift to new habits, adapt to newer attitudes, and commit to finding ways to make your life happier and healthier. Smokers today have the best opportunity of their life to commit themselves to quitting smoking.
They must also not hesitate to seek professional help from oral physicians and oral surgeons. Call on the toll-free tobacco quitting service, seek help from tobacco cessation centers, ask for nicotine replacement therapies and all other remedies that are available with the health department.
Unfortunately, Kashmir has the distinction of being the smoking capital of north India. It also, unfortunately, has a dearth of oral physicians and oral and maxillo facial surgeons at PHCs, CHCs and even district hospitals. Such doctors can make a paradigm and pragmatic change in smoking cessation programmes. Their prime importance should be gauged from the fact that they can be highly useful in early diagnosis and treatment planning of new Covid infections, like the recent epidemic of Mucourmycosis. It is a fungal infection which becomes highly active and pathogenic in patients who are on long-term steriods or who are immune-comprised, and in cancer patients on radiotherapy chemotherapy, or those with uncontrolled diabetes and other debilitating diseases.
Role of dental surgeons in general and of oral physicians and oral maxillo facial surgeons in particular becomes essential given the fact that the first manifestation of this disease is in facial and oral tissue. Ischemia necrosis of oral tissue, denudation of bone of oral cavity accompanied with ulcers in lips, mucosa of other oral tissues are diseases that spring from it. So, there is no denying the importance of oral health specialists in this pandemic. They can serve as first responders in diagnosing this disease at the earliest treatable stage.
Lastly, Covid-19 has been devastating and destructive all around. Let quitting smoking be a good possible outcome of this pandemic as the world prays and seeks end to this human suffering.

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Dr Tahir Ahmad