For 2018, more than 500 Tatarstan residents turned to smoke quitting services

It is planned that the number of smokers in the republic will decrease from 33% to 25% by 2020.

(KZN.RU, May 30, Ksenia Shvetsova). Over the past year, 512 residents of Tatarstan were treated in the offices of medical assistance in smoke quitting. According to experts, the percentage of smokers in the whole world is gradually decreasing. Today, 33% of the population smokes in the republic. By 2020, this figure is planned to be reduced to 25%, said Rezda Khaeva, a psychiatrist-narcologist of the Ministry of Health of the RT, at the press conference in the IN “Tatar-inform”.

According to the World Health Organization, every 13 seconds one person dies from smoking. The global tobacco epidemic leads to the death of about 6 million people a year, 600 thousand of them are passive smokers. According to expert data, about 300 thousand people die from smoking in Russia every year.

Approximately 85% of people continue to smoke regularly just from the first cigarette, noted R. Khaeva. “Smoking is a multi-complex form of behavior. It leads to the fact that nicotine, the main component of tobacco, affects the brain, neurotransmitters and causes addiction”, she explained. “First, mental dependence is formed, then physical. Since the level of dopamine and adrenaline decreases in cells, a state of withdrawal appears. A person experiences insomnia, irritability, difficulty in concentrating. It seems to him that another cigarette will calm him, but in fact, he relieves withdrawal symptoms as a result of an increase in dopamine levels”.

Smoking causes not only changes in internal organs and various diseases, but also changes personality. A person suffering from this habit becomes emotionally unstable, added the psychiatrist-narcologist.

The preventive work is carried out in Russia on an ongoing basis to stop the spread of smoking among the population. The main document regulating this work is the Federal Law “On the protection of the health of citizens from the effects of surrounding tobacco smoke and the consequences of tobacco consumption”.

Since 2014, Tatarstan has a network of medical care offices for quitting tobacco smoking on the basis of the republican narcological dispensary and its branches. Receptions are conducted by psychiatrists and narcologists free of charge. In 2018, 512 people were treated in the offices. In addition, a resource center “Common cause” was opened on the basis of the drug dispensary, where innovative methods of organizing prevention in the area of promoting a healthy lifestyle are applied. According to R. Khaeva, volunteers and staff of the center held 225 events in 2018, attended by more than 11 thousand people.

“Young people’s attraction to smoking hookahs, electronic cigarettes or electronic nicotine delivery vehicles is disturbing”, added R. Khaeva. “They are forming an opinion that this is harmless and cannot be compared with cigarettes. But medical research suggests otherwise. We believe that it is necessary to make changes to the federal anti-tobacco law on the distribution of the same restrictions on hookah and e-cigarettes as with ordinary cigarettes”.

Smoking causes diseases of the upper respiratory tract, oral mucosa, pharynx, larynx, esophagus and organs that the body uses for excretion, the bladder and salivary glands. It is directly related to increasing the development of lung cancer. About 90% of patients suffering from lung cancer smokers or former smokers, noted Artur Saifullin, an oncologist of the otorhinolaryngological department of the Republican Children's Clinical Hospital.

“Due to the increase in the number of women smokers, they develop diseases that previously occurred only with men”, added A. Saifullin. “Even 50-60 years ago, lung cancer was a rare case and only among the male part of the population. Such cases were demonstrated in medical institutions as a novelty. And now, because of the industrial production of cigarettes, it has become commonplace and has appeared among women. The same can be said about malignant tumors of the larynx”.

A scientifically proven risk factor for cancer is passive smoking. People surrounding a smoker receive from 20 to 30% of the harmful substances contained in cigarettes. According to R. Saifullin, the five-year patient survival with lung cancer is 12-15%.

Smoking is the main cause of morbidity and mortality from bronchopulmonary diseases since tobacco smoke contains more than 4 thousand different chemical components. Many of them have a toxic effect on the bronchi. Moreover, nicotine causes them to a lesser extent, then other components of smoke, said Elvira Kudryavtseva, the head of the pulmonology department of the city clinical hospital №16. “If a person smokes 70 cigarettes in his life, he already has a chronic inflammatory process in the bronchi”, explained E. Kudryavtseva. “This is the cause of various diseases: from bronchitis to such serious diagnoses as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The life of such patients, whatever we do, is 2.5-3 years at best”.

100% of patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are smokers or former smokers, she added. This habit leads to a change in the entire pulmonary system, affects all organ systems, causes emphysema, compaction of the lungs and contributes to the development of respiratory failure. Today this disease is in third place in mortality immediately after cancer and diseases of the cardiovascular system.

“According to statistics, the percentage of smoking patients is decreasing. It’s never too late to quit smoking, but it's better if a person smokes at least less than 20 years”, she said. “Smoking is a preventable cause of the development of dangerous diseases, so the fight against this habit will pay off in the near future”.