Trying to overcome your smoking habit? Have you ever considered locking your head in a cage, like this man from Turkey? No, me neither. Whether you’ve fought valiantly for years to quit smoking or you’ve questioned it but are certain you’ll never smoke again, placing your head inside a cage sounds like an extreme unlike any other. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills over eight million people each year. Tobacco usage accounts for seven million of these fatalities, while secondhand smoke exposure exposes nonsmokers to 1.2 million. Ibrahim Yucel, driven by desperation, took a drastic step that most people would never consider. He imprisoned his head within a circular cage and handed his wife the sole key.
It all happened in 2013, in the town of Kütahya. According to Ary News, he chose this procedure because his father died of lung cancer after smoking for many years. Yucel was a smoker who had been smoking two packs of cigarettes every day for almost twenty years. He was utterly addicted to his habit and could not stop. So he decided to try something different. By placing his head inside one.
After seeing motorcycle helmets, he believed they would make an excellent framework for his design. That’s when he grabbed 130 feet of copper wire and fashioned the cage, complete with a lock. After inventing the cage, he sealed his own head inside and gave his wife the key, limiting his release to times around meals.
Because of the microscopic spaces between the copper wire, he was able to drink water using a straw but couldn’t fit a cigarette in the same space, making smoking impossible. However, no one knows whether his invention succeeded, as there has been little publicity for Yucel and his family since he first started wearing the helmet.
People on Reddit picked up on the news and had some pretty intriguing thoughts on what they would do with the cage and whether it was a smart way for the man to finally break his habit. One individual said, “You know how they advise kids not to put plastic bags over their heads?” Big tobacco propaganda.” Another person joked, “The itch on my nose would be unbearable.” Someone advised him to continue smoking with the gadget in place: “He can stick a straw in a cigarette buttock and smoke from the straw.” One user was perplexed: “There has to be a better way of doing this.” Finally, someone cracked a joke: “He hangs around the smoking area, asking people to breathe on him.” Given the abundance of tools available to help people quit smoking, including patches, inhalers, gum, and vapes, the market may be missing out on this one.