Sunday, January 12, 2025

 

Photo courtesy Wikimedia

A Fit Case for Indians to Fight Against

The world is now recognizing that alcohol causes cancer in humans. The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million men and 600,000 women die annually due to alcohol consumption. This accounts for 4.7 % of all deaths. Visit

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol

The US Surgeon General's warning on alcohol consumption is a government warning that appears on all alcoholic beverage containers sold in the United States. The warning is intended to inform the public of the health risks associated with alcohol consumption. The warning includes two statements: (1) women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects, and (2) consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery and may cause health problems. A proposed new language for the warning is "Government Warning: According to the Surgeon General, consumption of alcoholic beverages can cause cancer, including breast and colon cancers."

The Indian Home Minister, Mr Amit Shah, while speaking at a Conference on Drug Trafficking and National Security on Saturday, 11th Jan 2025, said that 7% of all Indians use narcotics. He added that he would fight this menace.

We can ask why plants produce habit-forming or addictive substances. It turns out that it is because this attracts bees, who come back to pollinate the plant repeatedly! Why do plants and germs produce harmful biochemicals? It is to kill or deter their enemies. You must read about goats’ and cows' suffering when they eat coffee beans! However, humans find uses for plant chemicals that harm other living things. This is where care is needed. Tobacco killed over 100 million people worldwide during the 20th century alone and is now killing 8 million people a year worldwide! We don’t need to allow alcohol to kill 200 million more during the 21st century!

 Srinivasan Ramani