Smoking is now banned in public places in the Kingdom. Yet it is clear that it will take time to convince smokers that it is not just a question of obeying the law, but also a matter of their own health, and more importantly, the health of others, which they are imperiling by continuing to smoke in public.
The international conference held this week in Riyadh looked at how countries could encourage their citizens to adopt a more healthy lifestyle. The ambition is to reduce the incidence of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD)s such as cancers caused by smoking, or heart conditions and diabetes, brought on by bad diets, overweight and a lack of exercise.
The delegates heard a call for the banning of the shisha in cafes and restaurants. In all the debate, caused since the introduction of the smoking ban in Saudi Arabia, the loss of the shisha has perhaps caused most comment. Apart from those who enjoy smoking it socially, among friends over tea or coffee, perhaps after a meal at an eatery, others, even it seems, some non-smokers, have bemoaned the loss of a cultural icon. Well, yes and then again, no. Though widely adopted in the Arab world, the shisha is not part of the Kingdom’s heritage. It was a smoking habit introduced by the Ottoman Turks during their occupation of Arab lands. In Turkish the water pipe is called a ‘nargile’. Ironically in Istanbul until recently, there were only a very few cafés where a customer could call for one to be prepared, and most of those were frequented by tourists. Between 2008 and 2009, the Turks introduced a smoking ban which now covers all work and public places, including restaurants and cafés.
The argument has also been made that in the Kingdom, air-conditioning is ubiquitous and therefore smoke is quickly sucked outside. That certainly seems to be the attitude of some café owners, who even if they are not supplying shishas, are still perfectly happy to pop an ashtray down on a table, if the customer pulls out a packet of cigarettes.
Yet air-conditioning will not carry away the smell of tobacco, which many people, not just non-smokers, find revolting, especially when it is stale. And it is not certain that all the carcinogens in tobacco smoke will be extracted by A/C systems.
The argument for freedom of choice in public places holds no water. Just because one person likes to smoke, does not mean that others should like him doing so. What would a smoker think if someone, who liked to hear the growling engine of his big utility wagon, backed it up against a café door, and revved it so that the exhaust came flooding into the eatery ?
Yet there is an irony that many people who detest smoking and the harm that it causes, nevertheless themselves eat far too much and exercise far too little. Moreover, at the same time, if they are parents, they permit their children to wolf down large quantities of junk food, full of salt, sugar and saturated fats.
In a way, the challenge of having people eat a decent, healthy diet, is far more difficult, because it is not simply a question of what is eaten but also of how much of it, is consumed.
Unlike tobacco smoke, where it may still be possible to smell the smoke that perhaps made you cough, there is no obvious immediate effect from a large meal of the wrong sort of food, except perhaps a feeling of being pleasantly full.
The effects of excessive consumption of food with damaging additives, creep up over a periods of months and years. Adults may put their spreading waistlines down to genetics — weren’t their parents the same size at the same age? But then again, maybe the parents over-ate as well and suffered the medical consequences.
There is however one glaring piece of evidence of atrocious diet and complete lack of exercise, which is seen ever more often in the Kingdom. This is young boys, often not even into their teens, who are already so overweight, they are clearly clinically obese. When they are already having to waddle in order to walk, it is obvious that their medical future is bleak. They are straining bones and joints, to say nothing of their hearts. Moreover diabetes, with all its crippling consequences, almost certainly awaits them. Seeing such young victims of dangerous amounts of the wrong sort of food, is deeply depressing and ought to be a big lesson for the rest of us.
Editorial: Smoking is not the only danger
