JEDDAH, 4 December 2004 — Resentment at the antisocial behavior of smokers blatantly ignoring “no smoking” signs in public areas and offices are rising. From the smoker’s point of view, smoking is the exercise of freedom of choice to indulge their addiction in public. From the non-smoker’s point of view, freedom of choice means choosing not to have the exhaust fumes of smokers polluting the air they breathe.
Non-smokers fear the health threat offered by second-hand smoke. Numerous studies support this view, having concluded that the inhalation of second-hand smoke (passive smoking) significantly increases the risk of lung cancer and other smoking related diseases in a non-smoker.
Class action lawsuits in the US are threatening to pillory major cigarette manufactures with culpability in the death of thousands of smokers from the effects of smoking their products. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been paid in settlement by tobacco companies to the families of the victims; more cases involving billions of dollars are pending.
Smoking killed nearly five million people worldwide in 2000, with men more than three times as likely as women to go to an early grave, according to a recent study.
With cigarettes as cheap as they are in the Kingdom, the habit is widespread and the addicts often are blithely disobedient of no-smoking sign, frequently arguing that “others are doing it, why not me?”
Peer pressure is a well-documented drive for young non-smokers to take up the habit. Once hooked, the relationship with the tobacco companies may well be “until death do us part.”
In February 2000, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in the UK published a report on nicotine addiction which concluded that “cigarettes are highly efficient nicotine delivery devices and are as addictive as drugs such as heroin or cocaine.”
Two years earlier, the report of the Government’s Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH) said that: “Over the past decade there has been increasing recognition that underlying smoking behavior and its remarkable intractability to change is addiction to the drug nicotine. Nicotine has been shown to have effects on brain dopamine systems similar to those of drugs such as heroin and cocaine.”
Both the RCP and SCOTH reports confirmed the findings of the landmark review by the US Surgeon General in 1988 on nicotine which also concluded that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addicting and that nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction.
Anti-smoking media and health campaigns are attempting to enforce bans on smoking in several areas, including shopping malls and airports. Some smokers decried the move saying that they should at least have a special area set aside where they could smoke as they wish. Others, with a disingenuous concern for the addict’s welfare, say that banning helps them to quit smoking.
Non-smokers are demanding more restrictions, beyond simply hanging signs. They are pushing for legal penalties to ensure that signs are obeyed.
Badr Al-Majnouny, a smoker employee at the Saudi Arabian Airlines, said that he respected the signs wherever he found them. “However, I sometimes go to offices or shops only to find that the owner of these places is smoking, even if the non-smoking sign is hanging above him. Then I have no choice but to ignore the sign,” Al-Majnouny said, adding that some smoking signs are only displayed as a palliative to the authorities to qualify for safety or trade licenses.
Ahmad Al-Fal, a smoker working as a technical support engineer, said that if he had the urge to smoke in a non-smoking area, he went outside. “I know that smoking bothers non-smokers. I have been trying for six months to quit the habit.”
Using an ovine justification, he continues, “I never start smoking in a non-smoking area, but if I saw someone smoking there I just do.”
Mai, a non-smoker, said she hated the smell of cigarettes and the way people look while smoking. She said it was her right to sit and work in a healthy environment.
“Those who cannot let go of the cancer sticks can smoke them it anywhere else,” Mai added. “Disregarding laws and signs is not only about smoking, it is a cultural thing in our society. We as Arabs do not like to abide by instructions. Smokers must learn to respect others.”
Faisal, non-smoker, said, “I have a friend who never smoked a cigarette in his life but all of his friends were smokers. This friend of mine got lung cancer from second hand smoking. Luckily, he found out about it at an early stage and was able to control it.”
Faisal said his friend had to drop out of the university for a semester and undergo three months of painful treatment.
Cigarettes are “weapons of mass destruction”, Faisal warned. “Police should impose fines or at least insist that offenders leave the building.”
Smoking is dangerous to everyone and has to be taken seriously, Faisal added.
