Despite
the constanst advertising and awareness campaigns against it, smoking
is still one of the biggest problems for public health and the first
cause of death in the world. The numbers speak for themselves: 140
people die in one day in Spain because of tobacco, the product that
most diseases and deaths causes in the majority of the developed
countries, and that could be prevented. Unfortunately, nobody seems
to care about this situation. On television we just hear about deaths by traffic accidents or contagious diseases, when it is actually
smoking the main cause of mortality in our society. Tobacco
companies, on their behalf, represent a pressure for the governments
and health authorities, creating thousands of victims every year, so
it is difficult to find solutions.
Nevertheless,
there are things we can do. One possible solution could be to
restrict (even) more the number of places where smoking is allowed,
but this remedy would be criticised, problematic and complicated to
lay it down, since it is already forbidden almost everywhere, and
the cure would be worse than the disease. Another remedy is to make
stricter punishments for those who break the smoking ban laws, for
instance, by imposing higher penalty fees. However, it would be very
difficult to control everybody everywhere, and there would be still
many people infringing this law.
A
final solution can be to increase the taxes and price of tobacco, as
when its price rises, not only is the number of people who smoke
reduced but it also prevents many from starting cigarette
consumption, especially at very young ages. This is probably the most
effective way to dissuade smokers and restrain its use, and it is
accepted normally quite well by everyone, even smokers, because, at
the end, we all know how damaging smoking is.
