“Smoking is harmful to health” is a slogan that has become a household slogan. However, when the extent to which this slogan reflects the truth is questioned, it will be understood that it is a slogan invented to mask the real effects of smoking and to make smoking appear innocent. Because every year, 115 thousand people in Turkiye and 5.5 million people in the world die prematurely due to smoking. In other words, every 6 seconds, 1 person becomes a victim of smoking.
From our scarce resources, a total of 32 billion TL is blown into the air as smoke every year, 22 billion TL for cigarettes and 10 billion TL for diseases caused by smoking. These losses, in terms of loss of life and property in our country, are equivalent to the damage caused by four Gölcük/Marmara earthquakes every year, which is approximately one tenth of our 2010 budget. Much of the money spent every year for the division and dismemberment of this country is taken back from us with cigarettes. We need to realize that we are wasting our most sacred values, our right to live and our homeland, for the sake of cigarettes.
When we look at cigarettes in the light of these and other facts, we realize that every Turkish child should support the cigarette fighters. In this case, we need to change our social slogan regarding smoking:
“Smoking is a trap for our right to life and our future. It is our mortal enemy. It either kills or makes us crawl.”
Assoc. Prof. Mustafa AYDIN
President
Turkiye Anti-Smoking Association