Peshawar:November 28:Education enables people to recognize vices and dangers and how to stay away from these; however, in the case of tobacco smoking there seems to be no recognition that it is a vice and danger to one’s health and there is no education to the effect that everyone including the students should stay away from it. The life expectancy of smokers is cut short by 10 to 20 years. Smoking is a slow killer, not just for smoker but to those around him or her, Tobacco smoke is also environment otherwise. Smoking pollutes air as tobacco contains 4000 chemicals bad for health. Three things are the most essential for life water, food and air. If air and water are polluted then how for long can the planet remain liveable. Trees are lungs of the planet. Each year nearly 600 million trees are cut and the wood burned to make tobacco crisp dry. Cutting of trees affect the land we live in and the water we drink. Today medical studies have proven that smoking tobacco is among the leading causes of many diseases such as lung and mouth cancers, heart attacks, gingivitis , asthema and angina. It can also be the cause of birth defects among children born of mothers who smoke. Youth is the future of Pakistan and they have to shoulder the responsibilities of the nation. Smoking has become a fashion among students. This unhealthy habit has rotted the lives of many youngsters. Majority of students suffer from this habit but it is more common among those coming of rich families having excess of pocket money. There are around 1.2 billion smokers in the world. Educational institutions are the places where we got to know about good and bad and students become role models for others. If they l are involved in smoking they cannot guide others. Some students think that smoking cigarettes make them look mature or somehow more in authority which is rubbish. Students smoking may be because of several reasons. One could be their family. Students who have less educated parents or lower educational aspirations are more likely to have tried a cigarette more likely to have adopted cigarette smoking, and less likely to have quit smoking. These students also had more favorable attitudes toward smoking, and reported greater acceptance of smoking by their friends. In addition, the students with less educated parents or lower educational aspirations appeared to be more rejecting of adult authority and more predisposed to adopt adult behaviors, and these characteristics, in turn, were associated with smoking more. Smoking is one of the most common forms of recreational drug use. smoking is practiced by over one billion people in the majority of all human societie. A smoker inhales the smoke that does not give him any nourishment. This is similar to the action of the people of the Hell fire who eat harmful thorny plants:. Many kids smoke or use tobacco products to feel “cool” and grown up or to fit in with peers. Some do it out of a feeling of rebellion. Others do it because it relieves feelings of depression and anxiety. Depressed teens may also do it out of the hopeless or self-destructive feelings associated with their depression. In other words, they know better, but feel it doesn’t matter.. Parents should look for the tell-tale smell of cigarette smoke and tobacco products in their child’s belongings. Other potential signs of tobacco use are an increased use of breath freshener or gum to mask cigarette odor or stained teeth. Media has played a major role in spreading of this menace by presenting smokers in a glamorous manner. Youth has their ideals in movie stars. Media should abstain from glamorous advertisments of tobacco. Educational institutions are a scared place meant for imparting education and knowledge, not for breeding addicts. The youngsters should recognize their responsibilities towards their families and their country and try to abstain from tobacco addiction so they can make their dreams reality. One of the most effective ways countries can protect young people from experimenting and becoming regular tobacco users is to ban all forms of direct and indirect tobacco advertising, including promotion of tobacco products and sponsorship, by the tobacco industry, or any events or activities. Government should ban smoking completely in institutions and there should be penalties on students and also teachers so they prohibit this life threating activity. Because when educated people will smoke then why uneducated people will refrain from it. Quitting smoking is hard, but it can be done and as is said persons, ”Coffee and smoking are the last great addictions”. but one can still quit the habits if one realize that it’s not only about the harm smokers are doing to their own bodies, it’s also about the harm they are doing to the earth and the pain that they are causing their friends and families. For a smoker it is very difficult to quit smoking but if one realizes one’s importance, his responsibilities towards his family and his country, then he can quit smoking. Efforts should be made to stop smoking among the youth. Seminars should be arranged to create awareness in this regard. Everyone knows its harms and bad effects but still they do smoking. They need to be guided toward the right path.(The writer is a student at Department Of Environmental Sciences, University of Peshawar).F.P.Report.