155. Reading Skills Comprehension: Tobacco

TOBACCO

Read the following passage and answer the following questions:-

Tobacco use is a leading cause of preventable death and is estimated to kill more than five million people each year worldwide. If the current trends persist, tobacco will kill more than eight million people worldwide each year by 2030, with 80% of these premature deaths in the low and middle-income countries. Within the next two years, around ten lakh people will die of smoking in India says one of the most comprehensive studies. Smoking increases the level of poisonous carbon monoxide in the lungs. It gets quickly absorbed in the blood, affecting its capacity to carry oxygen. It strains the smoker even more as the heart has to work harder. High levels of carbon monoxide in the blood can impair vision, the perception of time and coordination. Smokers are more likely to develop respiratory ailments, thickening of the arteries, blood clots and cancers of the lung, cervix, larynx, mouth, oesophagus, bladder, pancreas and kidneys. Environmental tobacco smoke affects people who are frequently around smokers. It can cause chronic respiratory conditions, cancer and heart diseases. People, non-governmental organizations and governments unite on `World No Tobacco Day’ to draw attention to the health problems that tobacco use can cause. The theme for this year is Tan tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship’. The tobacco industry operates as a global force and uses a wide range of methods to buy, influence and power, and penetrate markets. Such strategies include direct and indirect political lobbying and campaign contributions, financing of research, attempts to affect the course of the regulatory and policy machinery and engaging in social responsibilities and initiatives as part of public relations campaigns. As more and more countries move to fully meet their obligations under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the industry’s attempts to undermine the treaty become more aggressive. These include weakening public health efforts to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

There should be an effective surveillance system which should collect information on the prevalence of tobacco use, tobacco-related morbidity and mortality, and policy and programme interventions. It will enhance government capacity to find out the relation between tobaccos and the health status of the population. Hence, it will assist in setting public health Priorities. There is an urgent need to strengthen research to deal with

1. On the basis of your reading, answer the following questions.

(a) How does the increase of carbon monoxide in the blood affect the human body?

(b) How can non-smokers be affected by tobacco?

(d) What is the significance of ‘World No Tobacco Day_?

II. Find meanings of the words given below with the help of options that fallow each of them:

(a) Complete

(i) persist (ii) absorbed (iii) comprehensive (iv) chronic 1

(b) Opinion

(i) estimated (ii) perception (iii) vision (iv) capacity

(i) disease (ii) mortality (iii) morbidity (iv) impair

(d) Supervision

(i) prevalence(ii) strains (iii) attention (iv) surveillance

Answers :

1.(a) Increased carbon monoxide in the blood affects its oxygen-carrying capacity, straining the heart. It can also impair vision, the perception of time and coordination.

(b) Environmental tobacco smoke may cause chronic respiratory conditions, cancer and heart diseases in non-smokers.

(c) Smokers are more likely to have respiratory ailments, thickening of the arteries, blood clots and cancers of the lung, cervix, larynx, mouth, oesophagus, bladder, pancreas and kidneys.

(d) It unites people, non-governmental organizations and governments in the fight against tobacco use because of its health hazards, the theme for the year being “Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship”.

2.(a) (iii) comprehensive (b) (ii) perception (c) (i) disease (d) (iv) surveillance

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