The Reina Sofía University Hospital in Córdoba commemorates one more year with preventive activities on World No Tobacco Day, which this year the WHO focuses on the protection of children and adolescents from the messages of the tobacco industry. In this sense, the hospital’s specialists point out that childhood and adolescence are key periods in the acquisition of healthy lifestyle habits, which will remain throughout life, and attention must be paid at these ages.
As indicated by the Junta de Andalucía in a note, in this sense, experts have warned that the electronic cigarette is becoming fashionable among pre-adolescents, to whom it is presented as an alternative to tobacco.
The head of the Pulmonology service, José Manuel Vaquero, has presented some of the main data handled by the Neumosur Association and the European Health Survey in Spain in 2020, which indicates that 16.4% of women and 23.3% of men smoke daily. Regarding the trend, he pointed out that in 2022 there has been a decrease in the prevalence of daily tobacco consumption among young men, while it has stabilized among younger women. Evolutionarily, the growing trend in electronic cigarette consumption continues, having gone from 6.8% in 2015 to 12.1% registered in 2022.
In this context, tobacco is positioned as the second psychoactive substance (behind alcohol) with the highest prevalence of consumption among students between 14 and 18 years old and 38.2% of young people indicate that they have smoked tobacco at some point in their life. .
In addition to voluntary consumption, we must take into account the negative impact that many children suffer from being passive smokers, since this smoke contains up to three times more nicotine and tar than direct consumption, with about five times more carbon monoxide.
In 2022, the Autonomous Community of Andalusia approved an important update of the Comprehensive Tobacco Plan (PITA) 2022-2025, which seeks to integrate the most appropriate actions for the prevention of smoking in different areas, ensure quality care, define and develop actions on groups in disadvantaged or particularly vulnerable situations, promote the collaboration of other sectors and the participation of all associations that carry out active work, in addition to launching the necessary training and research.
In Andalusia, tobacco is the first identified cause of preventable mortality and morbidity. Smoking causes at least ten years of lost life and up to 21% of all deaths, being the main cause of death from cancer, cardiovascular and lung disease. Regarding the latter, it should be noted that tobacco is behind 90% of lung cancer cases, and is a fundamental causal agent in a multitude of other cancers, such as those of the head and neck, bladder, kidney, esophagus, pancreas, stomach. and colon and rectum, among others.
Lung cancer is the third most detected cancer in Spain and of which around 5,000 cases are diagnosed per year in Andalusia (which represents a prevalence of 15.21 cases of this type of cancer per 10,000 people). Currently, the overall five-year survival rate for lung cancer is very low, barely reaching 20%. In fact, lung cancer is the largest cause of cancer deaths each year worldwide, accounting for 18.2% of total cancer deaths (1.8 million people).
Along these lines, specialists point out the serious consequences of tobacco consumption, since each cigarette contains more than 4,000 chemical substances (60 carcinogens), which increases the risk of suffering from chronic diseases such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, liver cancer, acute myocardial infarction, pancreatic cancer, arrhythmias, stomach cancer, stroke, bladder or cervical cancer, diabetes or myeloid leukemia, among others.
Regarding the use of electronic cigarettes and hookahs, specialists remember that they can also contain nicotine and other irritating chemicals that are harmful to health. All this without taking into account the impact on the environment. Each year, the tobacco industry costs the world more than eight million human lives, 600 million trees, 200,000 hectares of land and 22 billion tons of water, and generates 84 million tons of CO2, according to Neumosur data.
Hospital data
In the hospital setting, the Occupational Health Unit offers different intervention programs, among which is the smoking cessation consultation. As explained by the specialist of this service, Azahara Alcantarilla, “the tobacco consultation is carried out jointly by the unit, Occupational Medicine Nursing, where professionals who want to take another step in their smoking cessation are offered tools to achieve it with a consultation where it is diagnosed, treatment and follow-up are offered on an individualized basis.”
The data obtained in the last year of the smoking consultation show data very similar to those of the general population. Thus, among smokers, 55% have requested to enter the cessation program and, of them, 65% have managed to quit tobacco, with a relapse rate of 10%. The rest of the people are in the phase of setting a date to start the action phase.
“The treatment applied by the professionals depends on the phase of addiction in which you are and always programming with them the best way that can be proposed according to your needs. Cognitive-behavioral therapy together with pharmacological treatment is the most effective, and so far having very good results in this regard,” he noted.
Activities
Throughout the day, professionals from different hospital services will inform patients and professionals about the negative health effects of consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke. To do this, an information table will be installed on the covered street and will be distributed by entrances, floors, common areas and waiting areas, among others, as well as on the screens of the hospital buildings and elevators, in order to reach the greatest number. of people possible.
In addition, there will be the collaboration of institutions and groups such as Imibic, the College of Pharmacists, patient associations, among others. At the information table (another one will also be installed at the Palma del Río Hospital), smokers will be able to exchange cigarettes, calculate their savings if they quit smoking, obtain a specific diploma with their commitment to quit, as well as obtain advice on quitting smoking. .
This year, also on the table, drawings that hospitalized children have made with the help of teachers who work in the hospital will be displayed, in order to also raise awareness on the subject. In addition, this year everyone who comes to the table will be offered an alternative to smoking: a healthy diet, through the gift of tubs of fruit, ice cream and healthy smoothies, prepared by the Hospitality and Comfort service of the hospital.
All these activities have the collaboration of professionals from the area of Occupational Health, Occupational Medicine, Occupational Risk Prevention and the services of Pulmonology, Otorhinolaryngology, Cardiac Rehabilitation, Cardiovascular Surgery, Cardiology, Thoracic Surgery and Lung Transplant, as well as Comfort personnel , Hospitality and Kitchen, guards, technicians and other personnel.
Under the motto of other years ‘NO + Fumes, NO to bad SMOKES’, the hospital insists on the need to abandon this habit if you are already a smoker or the importance of not starting, given the enormous negative consequences for health.