Passive smoking: Serving jail term for other's crime

Smoking has been the most deadly addiction of man over the centuries. It is a habit in which a substance, most commonly tobacco, is burned for its smoke and is inhaled. The smoke passes into the lungs through the throat. The smoke contains nicotine and is supposed to give a person a feeling of 'mental relief' for a brief period. At the same time, the main substances and other ingredients are of a varied nature and include, mainly, tobacco, and assorted things classified as narcotics, like cannabis and today's heroin, but the use of narcotics is mostly limited as they are commonly unavailable.

The most common forms of smoking today are cigarettes, mostly commercially manufactured and branded. Other smoking tools include pipes, cigars, bidis, hookkahs and vaporisers. The harmful effects of smoking are widely known, and the habit is prevalent worldwide. Side by side, campaigns are being made every day to warn people against smoking and simultaneously to persuade them to abandon the habit that leads to scores of life-threatening diseases --- the most common ones being related to the lungs and the throat. But to the hardened smokers, they bring little results. In contrast, the new generation knows much about the lethal effects of smoking and is keen to keep themselves away from it. However, in what way smoking damages health is not unknown to the thoughtful people in general.

But another matter of great worries is passive smoking, where a person does not inhale tobacco smoke actively but absorbs it from the exhaled fumes of an active smoker. This serious issue is not often highlighted as much as active smoking. Sometimes, we become passive smokers while passing time with friends, at home with relatives, enjoying the company of colleagues, sitting beside co-passengers or strangers. Passive smoking is also called second-hand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) coming from persons other than the active smokers. The focal point here is not the active smokers, because they merely know about the detrimental outcome of smoking but may not be able to abandon the practice as it is a prolonged habit or simply uncontrolled addiction. But many people are unaware of passive smoking and its harmful effects on human health. So, the active smokers must not enjoy the 'freedom' of affecting others' health. Passive smoking is directly linked to respiratory illness, memory loss, heart disease, malignant throat sore and lung cancer that are particularly dangerous for children, who are exposed to higher risks of sudden infant death syndrome, pneumonia and asthma.

A report in the BBC News health section (24 November, 2011) insists that passive smoking kills 600,000 persons worldwide every year. According to World Health Organization (WHO), one-third of those killed are children, often exposed to smoke at home. Doctors have already confirmed that people who smoke frequently can damage their hearing. A latest study in the journal Tobacco Control, involving more than 3,000 US adults, suggests the same is true of passive smoking. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/health-11758345). Tobacco fumes may disrupt blood flow in the small vessels of the ear which leads to depriving the organ of oxygen and as a result, it accumulates toxic wastes, causing damage.

Collected from a website of BBC News

In this context, many countries around the world have enacted effective laws to curb the evil effects of smoking, and consequentially they are also reaping benefits. Smoking is banned inside all airports, government offices, health clinics and workplaces in Australia. Restaurants and shopping centres in most states and territories are also smoke-free zones. In Canada, smoking levels are some of the lowest in the world, with some 21 per cent of Canadians over the age of 15 reported smoking in 2002, according to government statistics. Public health experts say, the decline has been driven by tough anti-smoking measures adopted in recent years. In May 2008, in the run-up to the Olympic Games, a ban on smoking in most public buildings came into force in the Chinese capital Beijing. In Cuba, smoking was banned on public transports, in shops and other closed spaces from 7 February, 2005. The situation is safer in Europe and the USA. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/ hi/in_ depth/3758707.stm).

It is needless to say that these countries are getting benefits because of the effectiveness of the implemented laws. But the situation is worse in our country. Even in Bhutan, the sale of tobacco products has been banned throughout the country. In India, a ban on smoking in public places came into force in October 2008 in an effort to curb high levels of tobacco addiction. Anyone caught breaking the law will be fined 200 rupees. Bangladesh also has introduced several laws on smoking in public places and fixed an amount of fine on defying persons, but implementation of the laws has yet to be effective. Even a section of the law enforcers on duty are also sometimes seen smoking, though clandestinely, in public places, let alone fining somebody. Smoking is very much a conventional habit in our country, and sometimes people do not possess the minimum common sense that they should not smoke in running buses. Even when someone complains about smoking, they do not pay any heed to it, only because of the inoperative laws. The social movements against smoking cannot produce the satisfactory results owing to public apathy.

Eventually, the inoperative laws help people assume that abiding by laws is not something serious. The government should be extremely rigid and strict in implementing the laws to curb smoking, especially passive smoking. Metaphorically, to be harmed by another's smoking means serving jail-term for another's crime. Hence, people should come up with all-out efforts to curb smoking, so that it at least cannot harm other people. The highest number of people exposed to second-hand smoking lives in Asia, if statistics are to be believed. Therefore, to save ourselves from a lethal damage, let us fight our own battle.

Published : Friday, 01 February 2013, The Financial Express, Bangladesh

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