Nigerians generally abhor taking tobacco in any form, whether as cigarette or as the locally made ‘Utaba’. However, it is not uncommon to find persons take a smoke in public places let alone in their private homes.
Now a new study has brought to the fore a new dimension onto which those who oppose to smoking will tenaciously hold onto for a long time to come.
In a study conducted by Prochaska and her team, it has become clear that their is a negative social link to smoking and get a good job.
Judith Prochaska, associate professor of medicine at Stanford and lead author of the study has this to say
“You don’t know if smokers have a harder time finding work or if smokers are more likely to lose their jobs — or that when nonsmokers lose their jobs, they become stressed and start to smoke,”
They surveyed 131 unemployed smokers and 120 unemployed nonsmokers at the start of the study, at six months, and once again at 12 months. They used a breath test for carbon monoxide levels to see whether the participants smoked daily or whether they didn’t smoke at all. At the end of the year, only 27 percent of the smokers had found jobs compared to 56 percent of non-smokers. In addition, smokers earned $5 less per hour on average than nonsmokers.
“The health harms of smoking have been established for decades,” Prochaska said, “and our study here provides insight into the financial harms of smoking both in terms of lower re-employment success and lower wages.”
PhotoCredit: GettyImages
So when next you take that stub of cigarettes from your breast pocket, or from the ‘Mallam’, give it a thought and be ready to dance to the sour tune of smoking.
Source: Medical Daily
