No smoking

[parakhi]

http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2012/01/12/no-smoking

Every day I walk on the road, there are people with cigarettes between their fingers walking near by me. I cannot bear the fumes of cigarettes that enter my nostrils. I try to move away but the clouds of smoke come closer and closer. I feel like kicking the smoking freaks’ backs and show them some of my kick-boxing skills. They not only hamper their health but also nearby pedestrians’ because non-smokers who inhale second hand smoke take in toxic chemicals like the smokers do.

I was one of the happiest persons on the earth to know that Nepal banned smoking in public areas effective from August 07, 2011. With the introduction of Tobacco Control and Regulatory Act, I thought that I would not have to smell filthy smoke nor see smoking people around me when I am walking on the road. But unfortunately, my expectations of smoke-free environment did not come true. By the way, who listens to the government and follows rules and regulations? One of my friends says, ‘Acts, rules and regulations look better in papers’. Watching people smoking in public areas in front my eyes, I cannot disagree with him.

I read in a report that smoking claims a Nepali every 30 minutes. According to World Health Organization, tobacco use kills more than five million people every year which is more than the deaths causes by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria collectively. If this trend continues, tobacco use could kill more than eight million people per year by 2030, and up to one billion people in total in the 21st century. Likewise, second-hand smoke accounts for one in every 10 tobacco-related deaths

Most of the people know that smoking is injurious to heath. Look at the packets of cigarettes and tobacco products; it is clearly printed. Every beginning of a New Year, many of my friends keep the same resolution of quitting smoking and they end up smoking the very day. Smoking is the root cause of lungs cancer, respiratory disease, heart disease etc. The more you smoke, the shorter the cigarette gets and so does the life.

According to the Act, the public places where smoking has been banned include government offices, educational institutions, airports, public vehicles, children homes, old-age homes, public toilets, restaurants, industries, factories, cinema halls, bus stops and religious places. Similarly, the people smoking in public would be fined from Rs.100 to Rs.100,000. I wish the government does some math, I mean I would like to know the number of people that gets caught in the government net for not abiding the rule and the amount that is collected as fine.

Actually, people do not need to wait for a legal act to quit smoking; rather it is the self-determination that is required for quitting smoking habit.

I do not smoke. If you do not smoke, great! If you do then think about your lungs, and if there are people nearby you when you are smoking then think about their lungs too.

http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2012/01/12/no-smoking

[Author]

Posts