Hungarian and worldwide smoking trends are still shocking
Smoking causes severe damage in people’s health, the countries’ economy, and society worldwide. Since 1990, more than one million people died in the country due to this addictive habit, reported a Hungarian scientist.Â
Read alsoSmoking and vaping rules in Hungary
Portfolio reported that Hungary is one of the leading countries with the highest mortality rate related to smoking and lung cancer. Several scientists emphasised that if a country would like to avoid many people dying and even starting the addictive habit, effective campaigns and rules are needed to take action in time.Â
Each year, approximately 25,000 people die in Hungary because of lung cancer, but the situation is even worse than we could imagine.Â
Another major problem with people who smoke is their lifestyle choice as many studies reported that smokers usually do not exercise enough and regularly eat unhealthy foods and drink alcohol. In the whole world, nearly 1.3 billion people smoke, and most of them come from the younger generations. The dangerous habit is responsible for the deaths of 8.1 million people so far.Â
From all Hungarian smokers, recent statistics showed that 39% of them are from the younger generation (below 30 years old). Although these people do not necessarily buy the old-fashioned cigarettes but instead devices with heating technology such as Iqos.Â
Hungarian scientists and the World Health Organisation suggested the same effective campaign as soon as possible to decrease the number of smokers in the countries and to avoid younger people becoming addicts. They suggest increasing the price of cigarettes and heated tobacco products to decrease the number of customers.Â
The price of cigarettes has rapidly increased in recent years, but it did not stop people from buying them.
Moreover, products with heating technology are becoming more and more popular. These products are very new on the market, and measures, taxes, and other restrictions have not been introduced on them.Â
Hungary to become the first non-smoking country in the EU?
János Lázár, Hungarian politician and former leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, suggested in front of the Parliament of Hungary that elaborate plans are needed to prevent people below eighteen to become smokers and to protect those who do not smoke. The most important part of the project would be to make Hungary the first non-smoking country in the European Union.
Source: www.portfolio.hu
People that smoke transmit the COVID-19 more than non smokers.
https://www.ersnet.org/covid-19-blog/covid-19–propelled-by-smoking–could-destroy-entire-nations
“We found, as some others recently noted, that the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) receptor increases in the lungs of smokers and patients with COPD, a potential therapeutic target for COVID-19 and the importance of smoking cessation.”
“The attachment of the virus to the cell surface ACE2 protects them from immune surveillance mechanisms, leaving them tagged to the host for relatively longer periods, thus making them an efficient carrier and vulnerable host for future infections and spread.”
“Use of e-cigarettes is a risk for transmission of COVID-19, as the user exhales vapor droplets, which would carry SARS-Cov-2.”