Is smoking really harmful to health? Does smoking really cause cancer?

Nur Ahmed

Does smoking really harm your health? Does smoking really cause any disease in the body? Is smoking, or is tobacco consumption harmful, or is neither harmful? Where is the difficulty in thinking differently about the answers to these questions! The 23 points mentioned below are more logical than referential. If you are a free-thinking person, then after reading these 23 points carefully, your traditional beliefs about smoking will be slightly cracked.

1.  There is no disease in the world that only affects smokers.

If smoking caused any disease, only smokers would get that disease, non-smokers would never get that disease. But is there any disease that affects only smokers and not others? No. You tell me, can't smokers get cancer for the same reason that non-smokers get cancer? Can't smokers get heart attacks for the same reason that non-smokers get heart attacks?

I have seen many people I know and am close to suffer from heart attacks (heart disease), who never smoke. They suffered from heart disease only because of the increase in fat and cholesterol in their bodies. And the main reason for the increase in fat and cholesterol in their bodies is that they used to stay away from physical exertion. However, even though smokers also suffer from heart disease for the same reason, smoking is blamed for their heart disease first. Smoking is not responsible for not only heart disease, but also for diabetes and high blood pressure. I have proven this in my various articles on this subject. It is extremely wrong to blame smoking for these three diseases. The only thing left is cancer and brain stroke. Are those two diseases caused by smoking?

2.  In Bangladesh, women, madrasa educated people, and children are more likely to get cancer despite not smoking.

Women in Bangladesh do not usually smoke. Some tribal women and some university students smoke. But the percentage of women who smoke will not affect that. So, it can be said that not even one percent of women in Bangladesh are smokers. Apart from women, do madrasa educated people and children get rid of cancer even after staying away from smoking? Not at all. So what is the point of blaming smoking for cancer? These three categories of people get cancer even though they do not smoke, would the people who smoke and have cancer have been free from cancer if they had not smoked? Can anyone guarantee this?

3.  Not only smokers, but women and madrasa educated people also commonly suffer from brain strokes.

And are only smokers affected by brain stroke? Do women and madrasa educated people also suffer from brain stroke frequently? If a survey is conducted on people suffering from brain stroke in a hospital that treats brain stroke, it will be seen that not only smokers, but also completely non-smokers suffer from brain stroke at almost the same rate. Apart from these two categories, non-smokers also suffer from brain stroke. Can anyone prove that people who stay away from smoking suffer from brain stroke because of the same reason that people who are smokers suffer from brain stroke, but not because of smoking?

4.  Millions of smokers in the world die from cancer and stroke without ever getting sick.

In front of you and me, countless people we know are dying every day, who have smoked most of their lives, but have passed away without getting cancer or brain stroke. This would never have been possible if smoking really caused these diseases! Because if millions of people can pass away from this world without getting these diseases despite smoking continuously for not just one or two days, not just one or two years, but for thirty to forty years, then where is the opportunity to blame smoking for these diseases! Yet smoking is blamed for these diseases in such a way that those who smoke have no chance of surviving these two diseases!

5.  How many millions of cigarettes does a person smoke to get cancer and brain stroke?

In today's world, there are millions of people who have been smoking 20 cigarettes a day for more than 30 years, but have not yet suffered from either cancer or stroke. If a person smokes 20 cigarettes a day, how many cigarettes does he smoke in 30 years? The calculation is, 20*365=7300*30=219000. That is, if millions of people smoke about 220,000 cigarettes in thirty years, but millions of people do not suffer from cancer or stroke, then the question arises: how many millions of cigarettes does a person smoke to suffer from these diseases?

You can find thousands of people who have smoked 20 cigarettes a day, not just for 30 years, but for 40-50 years, and who have not yet suffered from cancer or stroke! It would certainly be surprising if smoking really caused these diseases.

6.  Interview with a man who has been smoking for 65 years

There is a man in our area named Sultan. He smokes regularly. Sometime in 2019, I was talking to him and we talked about smoking. I asked him, "How many years have you been smoking?" He replied, "I have been smoking for as many years as I have been pulling a rickshaw." I asked, "How many years have you been pulling a rickshaw?" He said, "For 65 years." I asked, "Do you have high blood pressure or diabetes?" He said, "No." He does not have heart disease. And he has not been affected by cancer or brain stroke yet. Because he has been pulling a 'foot-powered' rickshaw regularly for 65 years, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart attack have not attacked him. And even after smoking for 65 years, he has not been affected by cancer or brain stroke. He is still alive (September 9, 2022). How much earlier would he have been affected by these two diseases, if smoking was really the cause of these two diseases.

7.  Countries where smoking is completely banned

Smoking has been banned in a handful of countries in the world. For example, Bhutan, Turkmenistan. New Zealand is going to ban smoking. Are the people of Bhutan and Turkmenistan not now affected by the diseases that are said to be caused by smoking, including cancer and brain stroke? Do some research, and you will see that the people of these countries are still affected by those diseases as before. Because these diseases have nothing to do with smoking.

8.  What would happen if smoking and the use of tobacco products were completely eliminated from the world?

Nothing will happen. The rates of cancer and stroke in the world today will not change much. And the rates of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease will increase even more. Why will they increase? Because people are moving away from manual labor day by day. So whether smoking is eliminated from the world or not, the rates of these three diseases will only increase day by day, not decrease in any way.

If the production, import, purchase, sale and use of bidis—cigarettes and tobacco products—were completely eliminated from the world or from a specific region or island, would the world or the people of that region or island become safe from the diseases that are said to be caused by smoking, including cancer and brain stroke? Not at all. Because smoking does not cause any disease. Smoking is a global 'scam' or guinea pig. If any smoker gets sick with any disease, he is seriously told that you have contracted this disease only because of smoking. However, it is seen that countless people who do not smoke are also getting sick with the disease every day.

9.  Smoking first, or cancer first?

I have been hearing the saying 'smoking causes cancer' since I was a child. I believed it. Because everyone says it in the same tone. I used to think that if you smoke, there is no chance of surviving cancer. I used to think that if people did not smoke, the disease called cancer would not have arisen; smoking is the cause of cancer. But now I see, the reality is the opposite.

You read the history of cancer. Cancer has been around since the beginning of mankind. And smoking has been around for four to five hundred years. Smoking was introduced in the world in the 16th century. You will find this information if you delve into the history of smoking. If cancer has been attacking humans since the beginning of human existence and smoking was introduced much later than human existence, then is there any chance of blaming smoking for cancer?

10.  Is smoking more harmful than drinking alcohol?

There are some people who consider smoking more dangerous than drinking alcohol. But these people do not see the reality. Question for these people: Have you ever heard of a smoker killing someone for money to smoke? No. But in Bangladesh, there are countless cases of killing a father, mother or wife for not getting money for drugs. If you do not read daily newspapers regularly or do not know about any such incident, then search on Google by typing "killing father for not getting money for drugs" or "killing wife for not getting money for drugs" or "killing mother for not getting money for drugs" or "killing for not getting money for addiction" or "murder by drug addict". You will be shocked to see the horror of drugs when you find links to detailed news stories published in various media about a drug addict killing his father, mother, wife or someone else. But such murders by people addicted to smoking are extremely rare.

11.  Does smoking lead people to drugs?

Those who think that smoking does not harm people in any other way, but at least 'smoking drives people to drink alcohol or smokers drink more alcohol', when asked, 'Since drugs are harmful, you have no disagreement with this, so if drugs can be completely eliminated from the world, will smoking drive people to drink alcohol?', are forced to admit that drugs need to be eliminated from the world first.

12.  Is smoking or tobacco use harmful?

Cigarette packets say, "Smoking is harmful to health." Smoking means inhaling smoke. But when explaining why smoking is harmful, it is said that smoking is harmful mainly because the tobacco used in cigarettes contains a "highly toxic" substance called nicotine. If the nicotine in the tobacco used in cigarettes really harms people, then it is wrong to say "smoking is harmful." It should be said, "Tobacco is harmful to health."

If tobacco contains nicotine and nicotine is very harmful to public health, then why haven't our mothers, aunts or elders in Bangladesh who have been eating betel leaves or white leaves with betel leaves for 40-50 years in front of our eyes, but have not yet been affected by cancer or brain stroke, no harm has come to them yet? How many years do people suffer from these diseases after smoking tobacco?

Despite using tobacco products like white leaf, jorda, and gul for 30-40 years, millions of people leave this world without getting affected by diseases like cancer and brain stroke. Even now, millions of people can be found in Bangladesh alone who have been using tobacco products regularly for 30-40 years, yet have not been affected by these diseases.

The fact that some people who use them suffer from various diseases does not in any way prove that they contracted these diseases from using tobacco products.

13.  If smoking is truly harmful to human health, why isn't the production, import, purchase, sale, and use of bidis, cigarettes, and tobacco products completely banned and stopped?

Almost all countries and people in the world speak in the same voice against smoking and tobacco. No research has been conducted yet that has shown that smoking and tobacco do not actually harm health or that smoking has no connection with the diseases for which smoking is blamed. All articles and reports are against smoking. All countries are against smoking, but why don't all countries come together and ban smoking and tobacco consumption from the world?

14.  Only a supplementary tax increase on cigarettes is recommended, not a ban, citing the harms of smoking.

You read some reports written against smoking or some research results related to smoking. You will see that most of them, after mentioning the serious harmful aspects of smoking, do not recommend a ban on smoking but only recommend increasing the supplementary duty on cigarettes. This is hypocrisy. There is no need to promote something as harmful to increase the duty, it is not a big mistake to increase the duty on luxury goods, not everyday goods. The duty rate on reconditioned or brand new cars in Bangladesh proves this.

15.  What is happening as a result of unilaterally blaming smoking for various serious diseases?

What is happening as a result of unilaterally blaming smoking as the cause of various diseases? The real cause of the diseases is being hidden from our sight. Just as the exact cause of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease is still hidden from the sight of many. The first paragraph says that smoking has no relationship with heart attack (heart disease), high blood pressure and diabetes. You look at 100 diabetic patients (including women). You will see that most of them do not smoke. Even if you look at patients with high blood pressure and heart disease (including women), you will see that most of them do not smoke. Along with cancer and brain stroke, smoking is also blamed for these three diseases. When a person goes to the doctor after suffering from any of these three diseases, the doctor asks the patient and when he finds out that the patient is a smoker, he tells the patient that you have suffered from this disease because of smoking. When these messages reach the general public (1) Those who do not smoke, they think that since I do not smoke, I will not suffer from these diseases. In this way, people are diverting their attention from the real causes of diseases, and as a result, people remain confused about the real causes of diseases and do not get the opportunity to adopt any means to prevent them, which is why countless people are getting affected by these diseases. On the other hand, (2) those who smoke, but are not yet affected by any of these diseases, think that since I am smoking, I will be safe from these diseases if I quit smoking. Not if I don't. Thinking this way, even if they quit smoking, they are not safe from the diseases. This is because people are affected by diseases not because of smoking, but for other reasons. Due to not knowing the real causes, they do not get the opportunity to adopt appropriate means to prevent the diseases, and therefore they get affected by the diseases.

Perhaps by unilaterally blaming smoking for cancer and stroke, the true causes of these two diseases have also remained out of our sight.

16. Does smoking cause lung cancer?

Many people say that people who smoke do not suffer from any other diseases but still get lung cancer, or that smoking is the biggest cause of lung cancer. But do they never see that even people who do not smoke often get lung cancer?

An article titled ' Lung Cancer ' on the website of China's 'Guangzhou Cancer Hospital' (Bangla) states, 'Research has shown that about 90% of lung cancer cases are in people who smoke. Does that mean that non-smokers are not likely to get this cancer? Actually, that is not the case. Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou has found that the real cause of lung cancer is not known yet. So, it is not just smoking, but three other factors may be involved - 1. Air pollution, 2. Excess pressure, 3. Lack of nutrition. In addition, viral infections, mycotoxins, tuberculosis, immune dysfunction, endocrine disorders and genetic causes can also cause lung cancer.'

It is clearly stated here, " Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou has found that the true cause of lung cancer is not yet known."

17. A study has proven that smoking does not cause cancer.

A study has proven that smoking does not cause cancer. A report published in BBC Bangla on January 26, 2018, titled '' There is no benefit in cutting down on smoking — New study in Britain '', said, ''A study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) says that even smoking one cigarette a day increases the risk of heart disease by 50 percent. The risk of stroke or brain hemorrhage also increases by 30 percent.

It also says, "The biggest risk of smoking is not cancer , but heart disease. 48 percent of deaths from smoking are from heart disease."

The study found that while the overall number of smokers in Britain is declining, the number of people who smoke one to five cigarettes a day is increasing proportionally.

"A study of 100 smokers who smoked at least 20 cigarettes a day found that seven of them had either a heart attack or a stroke."

This study makes it clear, "The biggest risk of smoking is not cancer..."

But the reason their study found that smoking causes heart disease or stroke is because researchers were unsure about the exact cause of these two diseases.

The smokers they studied had heart disease mainly because of the increase in fat and cholesterol in their bodies, which is the main cause of heart disease. And those who have suffered a brain stroke do not prove that they have suffered a brain stroke, they have suffered a brain stroke due to smoking. Because the study says, "A study on 100 smokers who smoke at least 20 cigarettes a day showed that seven of them either had a heart attack or a stroke."

Out of 100 smokers, only 7 people may have suffered from heart disease or stroke. The fact that more than 93 percent of smokers do not suffer from stroke and that non-smokers also suffer from stroke frequently proves that among these 7 people who suffered from stroke, they would have suffered from stroke even if they had not smoked.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) conducted a study on 100 smokers, none of whom developed cancer. If another study had been conducted on 100 smokers, it might have been found that some of them had developed cancer. Would it then have been right to blame smoking for their cancer? That would have been the case if only smokers had developed cancer, as mentioned in the first point.

This research report   was published on the BBC News website under the title  ' One cigarette a day 'increases heart disease and stroke risk ' on 25 January  2018. It states, '' Cardiovascular disease, not cancer , is the greatest mortality risk for smoking, causing about 48% of smoking-related premature deaths ''

18. No one can yet pinpoint the cause of cancer.

No one has yet found a specific cause of cancer.   Another article  in the American Cancer Society's online What is Cancer? article, titled Why did this happen to me?,  states under the subtitle, " People with cancer often ask, 'What did I do wrong?' or 'Why me?' Doctors don't know for sure what causes cancer. When doctors can't give a cause, people may come up with their own ideas about why it happened."

Some people think they're being punished for something they did or didn't do in the past. Most people wonder if they did something to cause the cancer.

If you're having these feelings, you're not alone. Thoughts and beliefs like this are common for people with cancer. You need to know that cancer is not a punishment for your past actions. Try not to blame yourself or focus on looking for ways you might have prevented cancer. Cancer is not your fault, and there's almost never a way to find out what caused it. Instead, focus on taking good care of yourself now. ''

It is clearly stated here, '' Doctors don't know for sure what causes cancer. When doctors can't give a cause, people may come up with their own ideas about why it happened. '' It is surprising, but how people still promote this and that as the cause of cancer!

A report published on bdnews24.com on September 13, 2022, titled ' Why cancer occurs: New research will 'change previous ideas, ' said, 'Researchers have revealed the mystery of how air pollution can cause cancer to take root in the body.

The new idea was born from research into why non-smokers also get lung cancer. Smoking is the most common cause of lung cancer. But it has been found that one in ten people in the UK are affected by lung cancer due to air pollution.

"People with lung cancer, even if they have never smoked in their lives, don't understand why they got the disease. This study was important to help them understand why, " said Emilia Lim, a researcher at the Crick Institute.

19.  Research on the relationship between cancer and smoking is in the opposite direction

Almost all studies show that smoking causes cancer. There is a reason for this. This problem is because smoking is a guinea pig. Studies on smoking are also done in the opposite direction. For example, when observing certain cancer patients in a cancer hospital or in an area, it is seen that many of them were addicted to smoking, then smoking is considered the cause of cancer. For example, when it is seen that one in every four cancer patients' disease is due to smoking, then it is confidently commented that there is a direct relationship between smoking and cancer.

The correct approach to researching the relationship between smoking and cancer could be: (1) If, by visiting a cancer hospital or observing 100 people with cancer in an area, it is found that all of those 100 patients with cancer are smokers; or (2) If it is found that groups or classes of people who do not usually smoke or not even one in a thousand smoke, such as women in Bangladesh or madrasa-educated people, none of them ever get cancer, but rather others who are involved in smoking get cancer; or (3) If out of 100 people who have smoked regularly for 30 years, more than 80 have been diagnosed with cancer or brain stroke or both, then it can be confirmed that smoking causes cancer.

20.  Does smoking really cause people to suffer from various diseases? Why did this question arise in my mind?

An article of mine was published in the Daily Inquilab under the title ' Excessive comfort is the cause of baram '. While writing that article in a more comprehensive manner, when I clearly mentioned the real causes of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and then started a detailed analysis of the reasons that are usually promoted for getting affected by these diseases, one by one, I saw that in several articles/reports about the causes of these diseases, smoking is also being blamed for getting affected by these diseases. Then I went deeper into the relationship between smoking and these diseases and found that just as there is no relationship between smoking and getting affected by these three diseases, there is no relationship between smoking and getting affected by cancer and brain stroke. It is all a rumor.

21.  It is not smoking, but drinking alcohol that is harmful.

In that article, I added a separate chapter on the relationship between smoking and various diseases. The title of the chapter is, 'It is not smoking, but alcohol that is harmful'. After reading that chapter, people's perception about smoking will change completely. There is a lot of hypocrisy in the world. Despite the fact that thousands of people in the world are constantly losing their brains due to alcohol, many countries do not take appropriate steps against alcohol consumption. Almost all countries have excessive restrictions on smoking. These hypocrisies need to be eliminated.

The text is: It's not smoking that's harmful, but drinking alcohol.

22.  I don't tell anyone to smoke.

I have seen that smoking has no connection with any disease. Yet, I do not smoke myself, nor do I advise anyone to smoke. Because (1) Although smoking does not cause any disease in the body, the bad smell that smoking causes in people's mouth is certainly annoying; (2) Smoking costs extra money. Many people do not get to eat properly twice a day, yet they continue to smoke. However, apart from smoking, people have many addictions. Many are used to drinking tea, many are used to drinking paan. There is a rickshaw puller in our area named Ibrahim. He drinks about twenty paan a day. You can also call it an addiction. Many people drink tea twice a day or more. If they do not drink tea on time, their body experiences various reactions. This too can be called an addiction.

23.  Evidence of error in global beliefs

No one could have imagined that billions of people in the world could believe in a single misconception at the same time. Another purpose of my writing about smoking could be to expose the misconceptions right in front of people's eyes. At the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, I wrote a book titled " The Real Secret of Coronavirus ". The book not only broke the mold of the real secret of coronavirus, it also showed as clearly as daylight that there is no such thing as a virus and a pathogen that can cause us any physical harm.