Speakers at the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ organised by TTD’s Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS), here on Friday, appealed to smokers to shun the practice considering tobacco’s severe impact on health and well-being. SVIMS director and vice-chancellor R.V.
Kumar, who inaugurated the event, called tobacco a hugely powerful global industry running at the cost of people’s health. “It generally starts as a fashionable thing, as many youths see it as an ‘in vogue’ practice, which later becomes an addiction. After eating up one’s lungs, it causes heart ailments, paralysis, affects blood circulation and cancer,” he cautioned.
SVIMS Dean and Medicine Department head, Alladi Mohan, who organised the programme, recalled the decisive role played by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in spreading the anti-tobacco message across the world. Dr. Mohan also explained that burning tobacco not only impacts non-smokers in the form of passive smoking but also contributes to environmental degradation.
Psychiatrists stressed the behavioural impact of tobacco addiction. Speakers at the event also deliberated upon the current year’s theme ‘Protecting Children from Tobacco Industry Interference’. Marking the occasion, the Akanksha Charitable Organisation led by its general secretary Mardhala Ravibabu took out a rally from the Ambedkar statue to Gandhi statue in Renigunta town to spread awareness about the ill eff.
