Emphysema, COAD and smoking
No, in case you’re wondering this is not a post that dictates the complications, studies the consequences or examines incidences of smoking and airway disease.
This is merely an observation.
The smoking culture continues to run wild. The tax benefits and money generated, social aspects, addictions and a whole host of other complicated issues have resulted in smoking remaining popular, still sucking at people’s wallets and lungs. Walking through the Queen St. Mall in Brisbane is hard to do without copping mouthfuls of air so thick with smoke you can carve it up with a knife.
I’ve been thinking of late that a big turn-off for me is seeing people with end-stage respiratory disease, emphysema patients and those with chronic airway disease. Struggling for a breath all day everyday must be one of the hardest things to live with.
And a large, large, large percentage of these patients were former smokers, smoked for many years OR are STILL smoking (how many people gasping for breath and hooked up to oxygen have you heard asking if they can just go have a quick smoke? It’s happened repeatedly to me!)
Throw in:
- some bleeding gums or mouth ulcers
- the occasional trachy or voice box removal
- full use of accessory muscles and one word answers
…and there you have some fairly good incentive not to smoke. But you have to see it with your own eyes to believe it. Because smoking is cool, isn’t it?
Of course this doesn’t solve the answer to the question “how to show this image to the rest of the world”, in particular kids at school, teens.
Campaigns of late have tried to show this image by taking photo’s and sticking them to the sides of cigarette packages, with labels like “Smoking Kills”. Initially I thought this would be a good deterrent, but now I realise that those images are not moving, struggling, smelling bad, fighting for life like the people who are long-term smokers are.
Thoughts?
