2024-02-13 13:11:47
May 31 is World No Tobacco Day.
Worldwide, 6 million people die each year from diseases caused by smoking, and 600,000 from diseases caused by ‘secondhand smoke’.
Ahead of the World Day against Tobacco Control, Aysor.am spoke with cardiologist Samvel Hayrumyan, adviser on family medicine of the RA Ministry of Health.
“When we compare with other countries, the same neighboring Georgia, they adopted the law prohibiting smoking in closed spaces in 2017, not to mention that European countries adopted these regulations in 2005-2007. In our country, as in other cases, everything is more difficult to accept, especially in society, people are unusual: how can you go to a restaurant, eat, drink coffee and not smoke, there are people who cannot imagine coffee without a cigarette. It takes some time for people to get used to it and realize that smoking is harmful. additional information about the harms of smoking should be given and it should be started from kindergartens, schools, healthy lifestyle courses should be added to strengthen people’s view of how much harm smoking causes,” he says.
Control should also be strengthened. according to the expert, the restrictions are well kept in the center of Yerevan, while in the suburbs and marzes it is not so strict.
“There is no such understanding: the right of smokers, there is the right to health,” insists Dr. Hayrumyan.
In Armenia, according to 2016 data, about 15 percent of smokers are in the age group of 15 to 19, in the age group of 20 to 34 the number is already increasing, in the age group of 35 to 40 the number reaches 64.4 percent, it is also high in the age group of 50 to 64 in the age group – 56.6 percent, and after 65 it begins to decrease – about 30 percent.
“The decrease comes from the fact that people start to get many diseases, the diseases make them so poor that they start to realize that smoking has brought cardiovascular disease, an increase in respiratory diseases, and they have to start reducing it,” says the Ministry of Family Medicine. consultant in charge.
Worldwide, there are data that 90 percent of lung cancer is a result of smoking. 75 percent of deaths are caused by smoking, about 25 percent of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases are also caused by smoking.
According to the doctor, there are patients who are operated on, dutifully take their medicines, but if they continue to smoke, unfortunately, the disease continues to develop. The opposite fact also exists. people who had heart disease and managed to quit smoking feel a big difference in their well-being, the cough starts to decrease, the appetite improves.
Among women who smoke, unfortunately, the numbers are increasing. “Smoking is no longer fashionable in developed European countries, in our country, on the contrary, it seems that they want to show their position by smoking. In women, especially, it has negative consequences. affects fertility, for example, when we say come and get vaccinated against the coronavirus, you don’t know where they find materials that, as if it can lead to infertility, but that same person smokes and it affects fertility,” he says. is the specialist.
Dr. Hayrumyan calls on smokers to think about their health first, and then their relatives. “Often the smoker doesn’t even look at whether there is a child or an adult in the house, he starts smoking next to his family members without realizing that they are exposed to risk, therefore, work on yourself, show your will and quit smoking.”
Հեղինակ՝ Ani Vardanyan, operator: Hovik Grigoryan
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