Sixty percent of people who smoke in America today started before the age of 14 and 90 percent, 9 out of every 10 smokers in America, became addicted before their 19th birthday.

Hallo, insightful friends, and welcome to this week’s edition of Healthy Living. The World Health Organization has designated May 31st of each year as World No Tobacco Day. In commemoration of this important global public health event, we’ll discuss the hazards of tobacco and how the tobacco industry misleads the public.

Tobacco companies never give up their efforts to find new customers for their poisonous products, making use of various media for advertising and other methods to attract people, especially youth and women, to try smoking, get addicted and eventually become regular consumers of the deadly intoxicant they sell. Alice Chen, a former smoker and famous Formosan (Taiwanese) actress, now explains one of the tricks used by the tobacco industry.

For example, the famous Mangrove Expedition is actually financed by the tobacco industry. When the fifth or sixth graders join the tour, they get to know the name of the company. One day when they grow up a little, they will find out, “Ah! This company sounds familiar! It’s the one who took us for the beautiful nature tour.” Then very naturally they would pick up the cigarette.

They’ve manipulated millions of teens across the country by getting into their unconscious mind. They’ve associated images of healthy attractive role models with images of smoking and the deadly addiction of tobacco. They’re spending four to five billion dollars a year, in recent years, to advertise their addictive and deadly products.

Patrick Reynolds from the US is the grandson of the founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. After witnessing the death of his father and other relatives due to smoking, he decided to devote his life to warning others of the dangers of tobacco.

Mr. Reynolds created the Foundation for a Smoke-Free America in 1989, a US-based organization dedicated to helping keep youth stay away from tobacco products and helping smokers end their habit. For his dedication to improving public health and helping enacting anti-tobacco laws, he received the Shining World Hero Award from Supreme Master Ching Hai.

We’ve seen pictures of Joe Camel, we all remember the cartoon camel. The cartoon camel has been banned now. But we all remember the cartoon camel. Joe Camel, an ad campaign specifically targeting young people. Joe was playing saxophones, he had pool tables in the background. He had young girls hanging out at Joe’s place. Joe was a jock, he was cool, he was popular. He wore sunglasses.

Well if tobacco advertising told the truth, ladies and gentlemen, meet the real Joe Camel. Thank you. He’s lying down. He’s in bed. His hair fell out from chemotherapy. He’s got cancer. He’s dying. And he might be saying something like, “I’m so sorry that I smoked. I’m so sorry that I smoked. I’m sorry that I got conned. I conned millions of kids into starting. I made it look cool to them.

According to the World Health Organization, global tobacco consumption claims five million lives each year, accounting for one-tenth of adult mortality in the world. It also projects that half of present smokers will eventually die of their habit if they don’t stop smoking.

Medical evidence shows that smoking is responsible for at least 25 diseases, including cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, emphysema, oral cavity cancer, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer and liver cancer. Her Excellency Sylvia Masebo, Zambia’s Minister of Local Government and Housing, is a firm supporter of her country’s smoking ban in public places that came into effect in 2008.

For young people smoking brings up diseases. You have some chest infections. And obviously, for a young person that is still in the process of developing, that individual youth, or child, cannot grow as a healthy citizen, and will not be able to do work in an effective manner.

The smoke of burning cigarettes contains more than 4,000 chemicals, most of which are extremely hazardous to the health of smokers and those around them. The World Health Organization says globally there are 600,000 premature deaths each year attributable to exposure to second-hand smoke.

Even if we just look at the infectious side of things, we know that people who are either smokers or people who are exposed to second-hand smoke, they have had higher rates of respiratory illness.

We also know that they have higher rates of a variety of different chronic diseases, including cancers.

There are hundreds of thousands, millions of people who are exposed. And we’re concerned that they’re not only exposed to the chemicals, the particulate matter that is present in the cigarettes, but also potentially the microorganisms.

We found a number of different human bacterial pathogens. And this included Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Serratia, and E. coli to name a few. So we know that there are potential human pathogens in the commercially available cigarettes.

The cigarette may be at a very hot temperature at the end, where you light it, but you’re bringing that cigarette to your mouth, and it’s a perfectly fine temperature for you to smoke it and bring it to your lips. So there could be many organisms that could be brought in via the smoke.

We’ll soon return with more on the harmful effects of tobacco. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Once you start, it’s with you for life. Take it from me, don’t start. Just say no! Strike back against the tobacco.

Welcome back to Healthy Living here on Supreme Master Television for our program honoring World No Tobacco Day. Today’s tobacco products are more deceptive than ever. Some smokeless tobacco looks and tastes like candy, with flavors like mint and cinnamon and thus easily attract youth to use them and become addicted.

In the US a recent study found that there are thousands of children who have mistaken these pellets, sticks and strips that dissolve in the mouth for sweets or breath mints and subsequently been hospitalized for a nicotine overdose.

Regarding this highly disturbing trend, the US Senator from Oregon, the Honorable Jeff Merkley stated in April 2010, “They’re tobacco candy. Everything about them is designed for kids. We know from research that for people to be addicted to nicotine, you’ve got to get them before (age) 21 when their brain is still developing.”

Well, millions of our kids and all of you remember when you were that high, going into a convenience store having tobacco products right in your face. The chewing tobacco is often placed right next to the candy. You’ve even been perhaps chewing on Big League Chew from a round can, shredded bubblegum in a round can like chewing tobacco.

Very few of you are aware of the fact that the tobacco company is paying the store to keep those countertop displays in place.

Another trap set by the tobacco companies is labeling their cigarettes as “light,” “low tar,” “medium,” “extra light,” “ultra light,” “ultra low tar,” “mild” and “ultima” to fool smokers into thinking these products are less dangerous than normal cigarettes in terms of their content of nicotine and tar and other carcinogens.

The World Health Organization has concluded that “light” cigarettes present exactly the same risks to health as their non-light counterparts. In a 1972 internal memorandum, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company acknowledged that a “low tar” cigarette “offers zero advantage to the smoker” in terms of protecting their health.

Today more than 40 nations including all members of the European Union, Canada, Israel, Brazil and Australia prohibit the use of these types of misleading terms in advertising and on cigarette packaging.

Finally, studies show a new product called the electronic cigarette, which provides inhaled doses of nicotine by way of a vaporized solution and are even sold in flavors like mint or chocolate to entice youngsters into trying them are also severely detrimental to human health. The US Food and Drug Administration recently tested a number of electronic cigarette brands and found they contained hazardous chemicals, such as an ingredient found in antifreeze, and carcinogenic substances.

Every day more and more people are recognizing the dangers of tobacco and wish to end their habit. Alice Chen an actress from Formosa (Taiwan) and a volunteer for the John Tung Foundation, a non-profit anti-tobacco organization, now gives some practical advice on how to say goodbye to this deadly addiction forever.

It’s very important to find yourself a good reason for quitting. You need to be able to convince yourself, not others. If you are willing to face this with courage. After that, everything else becomes easy. It will be painful, but you know what you’re doing.

Every morning when you get up, tell yourself, “Go! No smoking for one day! Hang on for one day!” Before going to bed in the evening, cheer yourself up with applause. “I have stopped smoking for one more day. That’s great!”

During the process, don’t drink anything with caffeine, including tea, coffee and coke. The best is to drink plain water. Eat light food. If your meals are too salty or too spicy, you will feel like a cigarette afterward. And you will overeat. When you overeat, you want to smoke cigarette. Then if you feel low, do some exercise. Stretch yourself slowly. Then you will be OK!

In the processing of quitting cigarettes, we still have nicotine in our blood, and tar residues in our lungs. So we need lots of vitamin C to remove these toxic substances. If you eat lots of fruits and vegetables, the substances will be gradually washed off, and you won’t have the nicotine in your blood that sends out the craving signal. Then you will be able to stop smoking.

Here are some closing thoughts from Her Excellency Sylvia Masebo and Patrick Reynolds.

Once you stop people from smoking in public places, one, it obviously means that in terms of their health status, they will be much healthier people, and they will be able to contribute to the development of their nations. And for those that don’t smoke they will also be protected.

And for those that, smoke and are made to stop smoking, obviously they will have a healthier life, and they’ll live longer, and they’ll be able to contribute to a clean environment and a healthy environment.

I have a vision, I have a dream, that we will have a society free of tobacco, one day, it’s coming! And we need to educate our children, raise the tobacco taxes, ban smoking in public places, and as smoking goes down and down and down, one day finally smoking will be no more.

If you currently use tobacco products, please help mark World No Tobacco Day by resolving to quit the habit for good and if you know someone who is addicted please help them end their tobacco use. We sincerely thank all those across the globe working towards making an intoxicant-free world a reality soon in coming.

For more details on anti-tobacco efforts, please visit the following websites:
Patrick Reynolds www.Anti-Smoking.org
Dr. Amy Sapkota www.SPH.UMD.edu
John Tung Foundation www.JTF.org.tw

Intelligent viewers, thank you for joining us on this edition of Healthy Living. Up next is Science and Spirituality after Noteworthy News. May we all be embraced by Heaven’s love and light forever.