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CONTENTS
OF FIRST EDITION OF EBIT MAGAZINE________________
PUBLISHERS NOTE
On
behalf of the Board of Trustees, Members, Executive Committee
and Volunteers of People Against Drug Dependence & Ignorance
(PADDI), we welcome you all to this maiden edition of ‘Every
Breadth I Take’ (EBIT).
For
us at PADDI, EBIT is a dream come true. Eversince the inception
of PADDI in August 1995, we have proposed to have a platform
on which we can empower the Nigerian youth to arrive at informed
and sustainable decisions regarding individual and public
health.
PADDI
has in the course of her existence, successfully conducted
over 25 sessions of our Public Awareness Lecture Series on
Ignorance and Substance abuse in 6 States of the Nigerian
Federation, to wit : Lagos, Imo, Kaduna, Kwara, Kano and Enugu
; and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, reaching out in
the processs to cummulatively, over 10,000 youths.
With
the commencement of EBIT, we now have the unique opportunity
and capacity to positively impact on the lives of several
thousand youths, with just one publication.
PADDI
will ever remain grateful to the American Cancer Society (ACS),
Atlanta, Georgia, USA, which provided the initial seed-grant
to start off this publication. In addition to the provision
of the seed-grant for this publication, ACS also provided
PADDI with a unique opportunity in the area of capacity building,
by sponsoring the participation of PADDI to the American Cancer
Society University (ACSU) in May 2003. The experience garnered
at the ACSU has to a great extent positioned PADDI for greater
attainments in our core objective of minimizing (and ultimately,
eradicating) the societal scourge of substance/drug abuse
– particularly the ‘gateway drug’, cigarette.
Call
for support :
It is projected that EBIT will be distributed free of charge
to Libraries of educational institutions (particularly secondary
schools), Student organizations, deserving students and the
general public. As such it is neccessary to use this medium
to call upon community-friendly and socially-responsible corporate
organizations and individuals to come on board and support
EBIT in our quest to empower our youth for a healthy sustainable
living - the initial seed grant provided by ACS will suffice
only to publish the first and second edition.
TOBACCO-
RELATED CANCER.__________________________________
Welcome to this maiden edition
of Every Breadth I Take (EBIT)
In Nigeria we have a problem
with obtaining reliable data or statistics on virtually every
facet of life, ranging from our population to the prevalence
of diseases.
One ailment that has undeniably
been on the increase with devastating effect on our national
health delivery system is Cancer. Every aspect of the Cancer
scourge -diagnosis, test, treatment and management, constitutes
a sorious drain on both national and family health resources.
When this drain is targetted at a nation whose total budget
for the entire Health sector constitutes less than 2% of the
Nigerian national budget, the dire situation Cancer patients
in Nigeria have to contend with becomes apparent.
The goodness, however is that
with healthy and sustainable lifestyles, it is possible to
prevent most types of Cancer. EBIT seeks to promote sustainable
and healthy living.
This maiden edition of EBYT
will seek to inform , enlighted and educate our readers with
regards to a product which has been severally indentified
to be composed of over 40 cancinogenes (cancer causing elements)
in addition to being highly addictive. A products whose producers
have maliciously, vilely and deceptively targetted their marketting
and distribution strategies at our youth with a view to ‘catching
and hooking them young’. This product, the cigarette,
is increasingly becoming ‘fashionable’amongst
the youths of our nation.
Following greater awareness
in the developed societies of the ‘west’ of the
harm posed to society and its constituent individuals by tobacco
products (cigarette smoking in particular), multinational
tobacco companies have increasingly exploited the populations
of developing countries to market their lethal products. In
the course of the past 3 years, developing countries, Nigeria
included, have witnessed a near scandalous bombardment of
cigarette marketting, advertisement and sponsorships. In the
‘west’, that is the advanced economies of Europe
and America and the Far East, cigarette adverts have, in recognition
of the harm posed to public and private health, been extensively
curtailed. The new-found ‘love’ of the tobacco
multinational companies for developing countries is at best
dubious and probably,criminal in nature.
Scientific studies and practical
observations have proved incontrovertibly that cigarette causes
or increases the risk of developing several forms of Cancer,
ranging from Lung, Uterine and Cervical, Mouth, Kidney, Bladder,
Anus, and so many more others.
This edition features an indept
analysis on the impact of smoking on young girls, ladies and
women of child-bearing age. An opportunity is also offered
to our readers to contribute their own quota towards restricting
tobacco related harm, particularly Cancer, by writing a letter
to the Director General of the National Agency for Food Drug
Administration and Control (NAFDAC) urging NAFDAC to regulate
tobacco products (which in itself contains the highly addictive
substance – nicotine). In addition, basic information
is provided on Breast Cancer, a type of cancer that has attained
notoriety in Nigeria, causing the premature death of thousands
of women in Nigeria.
It is our hope that our maiden
edition will help fortify your resolve to abstain from smoking
(if you do not smoke) and provide you with sufficient reasons
to stop smoking (if you are already a smoker).
Readers reactions and articles are welcome
Happy reading
CHIZOMAM PEACE NGOKA
(Registered Nurse/Registered Midwife)
Editor.
EVERY
BREADTH YOU TAKE__________________________________
«
The Womb - Is It The Safest Place On Earth »
The
mental picture we have of a foetus (unborn baby) in the womb
is that of a creature cmpletely at peace with itself and it
surroundings. In the natural scheme of things,this is an absolute
truth. The womb environment has all the necessary ingredients,
nutrients and characteristics to make the brief stay (usually
9 months) of its guest (the fœtus} as comfortable and
stress-free as possible.
The
above state of nature is presently, however, being compromised
by the increasing incidents of drug abuse (particularly nicotine/tobacco
use) amongst young ladies and women of child bearing age.
The
unborn child is 100% dependent on its mother for all its requirement{nutrition,
air intake,and so on}.The linkage between the fœtus and
its mother is primarily the placenta. Virtually everything
the mother takes in during the 9months period of pregnancy
or gestation, in one form or the other filters through to
the unborn child via the placenta.
It
is without doubt that intake of such substances as tobacco,
alcohol and hard drugs will have negative impact upon the
unborn child. When a mother smokes, drinks alcohol or inject
other illicit drugs, the unborn child is automatically forced
to smoke, drink or inject the same substance consumed by the
mother.
When
a non smoker enters into a room or an environment that has
been polluted by cigarette smokes, such non smoker can easily
walk out of such smoky room or environment. The unborn child
cannot simply walk out of the womb. The child has to compulsory
suffer the adverse effect of smoking by its mother.
Some
of the noted smoking related complications suffered by the
unborn child include :
i) sudden infant death syndrome,
ii) low birth weight,
iii) lowered intelligience,
iv) mental retardation,
v) impaired physical coordination,
vi) learning and organizational disorders,
vii) continuing growth delays,
viii) several forms of Cancer to which both mother and child
are exposed to.
A
physically deformed or mentally retarded child is of itself
a source of concern to the fanily and parents. One can only
then imagine the level of anguish suffered by a woman, who
through her own actions (the unhealthy act of smoking) brings
upon her child such negative consequences. Woe betides the
woman who by her own actions sentences her offsprings to a
life of deformity, retardation, untold hardship and ill health.
The
mental picture painted at the begining of this write-up of
a blissful womb where all the requirements of the fœtus
is available, is replaced, in the case of a cigarette smoking
expectant-mother with a smoky, polluted and unfriendly environment
where the unborn child is held captive for the gestational
period of 9months. The battle for survival of the fœtus
of a cigarette smoking mother begins from right inside the
womb. Such a child, if it eventually makes it to delivery,
is faced with diverse future ill health consequences.
The
really scary part of the problem posed by cigarette smoke
to the unborn child is that though the risks mentioned above
will generally materialize if the ‘expectant-mother’
is a smoker, their is also a likelihood of the unborn child
suffering the damages enumerated if the mother is regularly
exposed to ‘second-hand-smoke’ or ‘environmental
tobacco smoke’ (ETS). This can occour where the mother
is usually in a position where she inhales tobacco smoke,
as in where the spouse, employees/employer/co-workers smoke.
With
all the foregoing facts, why would a teenage girl, young lady
or a woman of child-bearing age ever smoke cigarettes.
WHY
LADIES SMOKE :
Over the years, tobacco multinationals have targetted cigarette
advertisements at young girls in developing countries. Following
the age old adage ; ‘educate a woman, you educate a
nation’, these tobacco multinationals have formed the
opinion that ‘if you get a lady to smoke, you invariable
get the nation smoking’.
Knowing
full well that virtues of ‘elegance’, ‘style’
‘class’ and ‘en-vogue’ are sentiments
women appreciate being associated with, cigarette advertisemnets
have surreptitiously tried to market cigarettes as a product
that accords high class status, style and elegance to its
users. Whilst in truth, cigarettes merely assure disease,
stench and ultimate anguish to its users.
Popular
film stars, super-models, athletes and musicians held by our
youths (particularly our young girls) as role models, are
deceptively used to promote cigarettes.
Inadvertenly,
young girls who want to ‘belong’ or be part of
‘the main stream’, believe it is ‘chic’
to smoke (just like their role models in films and the cigarette
advertisements). Such ladies by the indulging in smoking believe
they are creating an aura of exclusivity and distinction,
unwittingly and unconsciously begin a steady but sure descent
into addiction, disease and ultimately, premature death.
Unknown
to these young girls, each stick of cigarette contains in
addition to over 40 cancinogenes (cancer causing elements)
a highly addictive substance (nicotine), which ensures that
the smoker will not be able to stop smoking whenever he/she
feels like stopping. What begins as a mere fad, soon develops
into an addiction, a deadly crippling addiction.
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