The average smoker needs 5000 cigarettes a year. That’s a lot.

In light of all the recent excitement surrounding the Cricket Word Cup, the UK NHS (Nation Health Service) Smoke-free campaign has been gung-ho in their attempt to urge cricket fans to stop smoking. While smokers are usually quick to argue that a few drags quickly will calm their nerves, the NHS reports that smoking actually increases stress levels. Basically, the Nicotine high wears off quickly and the withdrawal makes smokers even more tense. The only appropriate de-stressor is, alas, another cigarette.

The Smoke-Free Campaign basically plays off the notion that you, the die-hard cricket fan, will already be tense and stressed-out while watching one or all of the 51 Cricket World Cup matches. Smoking will just force you to sit even more at the-edge-of-your-seat, in a bad way.

So no offense to the NHS, but their whole Smoke-Free during the Cricket World Series Campaign is a bit elementary. Watching sports is stressful, smoking is stressful. Thus, stressful+stressful= double stressful. Oh my!

But the NHS did highlight some alarming statistics and health trends that South Asians (especially the smokers) should take a look at. Below are the five most relevant points:

• Smoking rates amongst Asian communities are often higher than the national average and this is particularly the case with the male population. 40% of Bangladeshi males, 20% of Indian males and 29% of Pakistani males are all addicted to smoking (Source: Health Survey for England, 2004)
• Ethnic minorities have been shown to possess relatively poor knowledge concerning the link between cigarette smoking and disease. 22% of Bangladeshi men and 20% of Pakistani men believe smoking has ‘no effect’ on their current health, compared to 12% of the UK as a whole (ASH)
• Smoking is one of the major causes of Chronic Heart Disease and reports indicate that South Asians living in Britain are 50% more likely to die from CHD than the general population (note: South Asians residing in the United States are also overwhelmingly more susceptible to CHD than the general population)
• Of men that have smoked regularly at some stage in their life in Britain, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men are the least likely groups of males to have successfully stopped smoking, with only one in five men who had ever smoked regularly having given up. (Health survey for England)
• The risk of disease among South Asians is particularly high due to the combination of smoking and the presence of other risk factors. For example, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities tend to eat fewer fruit and vegetables and do less physical exercise than other minority groups

To give them a bit of well-deserved credit, the NHS really is a great resource for South Asian (especially in the UK) smokers who want to kick their addiction. The NHS Asian Tobacco Helpline provides confidential and free advice on how to give up ethnic-specific tobacco habits, like smoking “bidis” or chewing paan. Smokers also have the option of calling different helpline numbers depending on if they would feel more comfortable speaking in their native languages such as Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, or Bengali.

And with an ironic twist, new reports indicate that Pakistan’s coach Bob Woolmer died aged 58 on Sunday after being found unconscious in his hotel room the morning after their surprise defeat by Ireland. His son, Russell Woolmer, was quoted saying “There was a lot of stress in his job and it may have been stressed that caused [his death]”.

I don’t know if Bob Woolmer was a smoker but aside from that possibility, stress and cricket seem to go hand-in-hand… I guess the UK NHS knew what they were talking about when they launched this whole get “Smoke-Free” for the Cricket World Cup campaign.