In continuation with 2017’s campaign,S.O.O.N has garnered immense support ever since its inception and this year’s theme of 'World No Tobacco Day' being 'Tobacco and heart disease', the campaign focuses on the impact that tobacco has on the cardiovascular health of people all over the world.

 

Through the nationwide campaign of S.O.O.N, Gleneagles Global Hospitals aims to increase awareness on feasible actions and measures that people can take to reduce the risks to heart health posed by tobacco. There are numerous lifestyle related issues that tobacco has on a person especially when it comes to the youth.

 

According to WHO, smoking affects the young people’s physical fitness in terms of both performance and endurance causing innumerable lifestyle concerns both directly and indirectly. The resting heart rates of young adult smokers are two to three beats per minute faster than non-smokers and are more likely to have seen a doctor or other health professionals for an emotional or psychological complaint.

 

It is all around us. Open areas meant for gardens are being swallowed up by builders. Entire forests are being chopped to make way for highways, apartment complexes and resorts. There is no end to destruction of natural habitat to make way for human greed. Smoking, in a way, is exactly like encroachment. Most people know it is bad for the lungs; it causes multiple cancers- lungs, mouth, tongue, throat, etc. What people do not realise, or do so at a later stage, is that smoking affects the heart as well.

 

It weakens the heart’s muscles; it increases blood pressure by thickening the arterial walls, and so on. In a way, smoking encroaches upon the heart as well. We have depicted this through a single key visual, that of the lungs shown as buildings and the heart as a lush, green forest. ‘Development’, as signified by the lungs turning into a concrete jungle, is slowly but surely inching towards the heart, causing irreversible damage.

 

Commenting on the campaign,Dr Ajay Bakshi, Chief Executive Officer, India Operations Division, Parkway Pantai commented, ''Our aim at Gleneagles Global Hospitals is to ensure a better quality of life. All initiatives we do are for the people, to create a more aware and healthier society. Our No Tobacco Day initiative- S.O.O.N (Save Our Organs Now): Quit Tobacco’ not only aims at reaching out and creating awareness to the masses but also executing precautions and remedies regarding tobacco since it is a rising epidemic. ''