Healthy Conversation with lung specialist Wanda de Kanter
Smoking is just as addictive as cocaine and heroin, and should have been banned long ago. That is the opinion of lung specialist Wanda de Kanter, who has seen the consequences of smoking in her patients for more than 30 years. For a year now, she has largely hung up the white coat and fights for her patients in court – by litigating against the tobacco industry.
Anyone who reads the figures on smoking is shocked every time. About 24 percent of the Dutch population smokes and every week hundreds of young people start smoking. Every year there are 20,000 tobacco deaths in the Netherlands alone, and worldwide there are 8 million. For every death from tobacco there are at least 50 people who have become ill from smoking. For example, 30 percent of cardiovascular disease cases are due to smoking, tobacco contributes to the development of 16 types of cancer and COPD. Smoking is also associated with depression and stress. Wanda de Kanter has treated countless people with lung cancer or other lung problems caused by smoking in her long career. She saw how persistent a smoking addiction is. She also saw her patients’ children smoke, and sometimes even the grandchildren. She wanted to break this deadly pattern by taking on the tobacco industry, which she says is ‘relentlessly addicting to tobacco’.
Protect the youth
De Kanter fights against the tobacco industry, which in all kinds of ways ensures that smokers continue to smoke and that new young smokers are constantly added. “Internally, the industry calls this ‘replacement smokers’: the young have to become the new smokers when the older smokers have died,” she says. Young people often start with a cigarette at a party, first buy some cigarettes from friends, then buy a pack for the first time and eventually smoke every day. Two out of three young people who start smoking eventually become addicted, says De Kanter. And with that they signify a life with an average of 13 less healthy life years. Tobacco manufacturers are ubiquitous on social media and other platforms frequented by young people, often with surreptitious advertising. De Kanter wants to put an end to this, and is herself with her organization ‘Tabak Nee’ active on TikTok.
Lobbying in politics
The tobacco industry is known for frequent lobbying of political parties. As a result, they influence tobacco decision-making. For example, they try to stop or delay the increase in excise duties, or they prevent the number of tobacco outlets from being reduced. The VVD in particular is sensitive to this lobby, says de Kanter. “Under the guise of liberal freedom of choice, people are being dumped into an addiction that is very costly to society,” says De Kanter. And those costs are not the polluter pays: the tobacco industry never has to pay for the costs of diseases, nor for the costs of environmental pollution from growing tobacco, the production of cigarettes and the many butts as waste. .” It is estimated that smoking costs our society 30 billion euros a year, about 2,000 euros per person. De Kanter has also ensured that lobbying the tobacco industry is officially no longer allowed in municipal, provincial and national politics. And of course it hasn’t disappeared yet, but it has decreased a lot. On the website ‘TobaccoNo‘, an initiative of the Youth Smoking Prevention Foundation, De Kanter is not afraid to name and shame politicians with ties to the tobacco industry. “In the past, a State Secretary of Health could go to work for a tobacco manufacturer after his political career. We bring such matters to the public. Fortunately, it is increasingly ‘not done’.”
Addicted? make a plan
Especially at the beginning of a new year, many people make the resolution to quit smoking. De Kanter naturally encourages this, but warns: “Make a plan in advance. Find out why you want to quit, what your difficult moments will be, look for alternatives for those moments. And ask for help, both from those around you and from professionals. is persistent, but fortunately there are many options for help, such as the ‘stop smoking clinics’.” Oh, and to get rid of a common fear: you really don’t gain much weight if you stop smoking. “If you replace every cigarette with a bitterbal or cream puff, that will happen. But weight gain is usually limited to a few kilos. Remarkably, research shows that smokers are on average heavier than non-smokers,” says De Kanter.
Save your children
The European Union strives for a smoke-free generation: that today’s children do not become smokers in the future. That would save so much expense and grief in the decades to come! But how can you protect your children from tobacco? De Kanter: “First of all, by forbidding it. Setting clear rules really helps. Secondly, by setting a good example yourself. And thirdly by telling your children about the damage that smoking causes and about the devious tactics that the tobacco industry uses to children addicted.”
Listen below to the conversation with Wanda de Kanter.
