Despite all the evidence and warnings of health hazards, people keep on smoking. It may be because doctors, who should serve as role models in matters of health seem to mock the warnings as they puff on cigarettes themselves. Perhaps we don’t mind suffering diseases which doctors have no objection to suffering themselves. Smokers injure their own health as well as that of family members who are around them. Smoking in closed spaces such as lifts and cars is particularly dangerous.
Those who violate the ban on smoking in public places are too numerous. Either they ignore the feelings and fears of others or believe that nobody objects to their smoking. People even try to smoke in the toilets of airplanes where smoking is strictly prohibited and where smoke detectors are fitted. The no smoking signs in our airports seem to impress nobody. No airport official makes the slightest attempt to enforce the anti-smoking regulations.
A few days ago I was a witness to an actual fist fight in the building where I live. A man insisted on smoking in the lift despite protests from other men in the lift. When the smoker ignored their requests, one of them took the cigarette away from the smoker. The situation degenerated into a fight between the two men. Though I strongly disapprove of any kind of physical violence, I tolerate it on rare occasions such as this.
The attack on the smoker was the talk of the building for several days. There were of course different versions of the story. Some said the smoker was seriously injured and that he was in intensive care in a local hospital. To the great relief of non-smokers in the building, nobody dared to smoke in the lift for several days. Matters soon returned to normal as the residents found other topics to discuss. The smokers also were encouraged because they soon learned that the man who had beaten up the smoker in the lift was an outsider who had only come to visit some relatives in the building.
