Thwarting Big Tobacco

There is a recent report reviewed in The New Scientist which shows a very significant increase in pulmonary problems caused by passive smokers.

PIA should ban smoking in all sections of the aircraft on international flights. Further, the new government in Pakistan, whatever form it takes, should protect non-smokers from the effects of secondary smoke. Enforcement of existing regulation can be the first step.

Smokers have rights but it is best they exercise them in the open air and not poison the surroundings.

Please read the following report in case you have any doubts.

PROPORTION OF COMMUNITY-ACQUIRED PNEUMONIA CASES ATTRIBUTABLE TO

TOBACCO SMOKING

One out of three observed pneumonia cases would have been avoided if

no one in the population had smoked. CHEST 116(2):375-379, 1999

http://id.medscape.com/12497.rhtml

Soldotna:

``Nicotine Laced Regards``

Please check out abcnews.com where a bold and beautiful(blue) heading reads:

``Philip Morris Faces Cancer``.

Hope that will be a comforting revelation.

Take Care

re. Soldotna and smoker`s rights:

Well, well, well... If it isn`t Ms/Mr. ``Contact So-and-So and get some help with your addiction``...

Funny how we use the ``don`t join the fahionable causes`` argument when it suits us.

regards,

re. Soldotna and smoker`s rights:

Well, well, well... If it isn`t Ms/Mr. ``Contact So-and-So and get some help with your addiction``...

Funny how we use the ``don`t join the fahionable causes`` argument when it suits us.

regards,

soldatna: haikus are 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables.

rizvi

Dear Daud and Zehra, I am not saying that other issues such as education, etc should not be tackled/discussed in par with tobacco. All I am trying to say is that everyone has hovered around cigarette-smoking (granted it is invasive) but has ignored non-invasive addictions such as tobacco chewing, alcohol etc. `Cuz it is fashionable and in-vogue. Peer pressure, perhaps. If we are genuinely concerned about health, alcohol and obesity are as much deadly as tobacco. And moreover, how about smokers` rights i.e. on

transcontinental flights and airports.

Zehra, just for you here is some hooka-aiku ...

Tobacco`s silver rings -

millennium anniversary

of first chowk junk

Orion Daudpota Nebula -

in my mind`s eye

Mallee dust blows

Apres xenocide

our smokers` Zippo flame

unsteady

Pall Mall Inc with kaleidoscope eyes

blinks -

screen-saver off:

two hazelnuts

Zehra, your interact

on thick, real paperchowk -

curious eyeballs swivel

Worries roll past

like rubber balls -

the smoker earns to chase

Non-smokers scattered:

Smokers remember

a paw in a fishpond



Marlboros -

dirty ashtrays

and the stressed mind

Visiting Grandpa

in the nursing home:

still not quite smoke-time

Croaked vocal cords

ticking like a clock

in the forever-blowing smoke

Was today too hard?

the smokers` blight

every shade of bruise

Smoky Smoky rooms

walls covered in shrouds:

old painting of the future

Childhood shattered -

I remember a secret drawer

full of smokes

This Chowk Special -

a disgusted ploy

by disgruntled ex-smokers

The cigarette filter shreds

another nicotine drop -

the smoke ring always uneven

Anti-smoking moths weave

an invisible maypole -

75 billion dollars next spring?

Nicotine-laced ripples

stilled by a tobacco leaf -

Uncle Joe Camel netted

Completely still -

then the horse in Marlboro country

bends its neck

This deflowered Virginia Slim -

rage, vanity, lust abandoned

for supreme sloth

Smokestack day:

Cinder birds

are distant company!

With Nicotine-Laced Regards,

Soldotna in Alaska

I`d agree with the author that it is a writer`s prerogative whatever issue he/she wants to address in his/her article.

Though Soldotna, please do not forget:

- The smokers pollute the oxygen that other humans share for breathing. One cannot compare drinking, obesity and chewing tobacco with that.Ok, drinking may be in a different way but not exactly the same. The immediate reaction is very different.

To give you another example: The friend I have mentioned in my ``Conservative Statements`` will not think of smoking in her house because her husband will start having breathing problems. The point is not to curse the smoker but to let you know that how many lives can be affected by this one person`s addiction.

Imagine this woman being a mother in a year or so and the fact that she never quitted smoking has created problems for her as well as her baby. This is sinful.{And that is not a fashionable statement at all in case you read it that way} The worst part is that it is an intentional crime :-(

Personally, I think that smokers are very sensitive to their holy act. They hate to be pointed out till a doctor tells them in a voice with hidden implications:

``Mr./Mrs() so and so {Khamoshee}, Lo and Behold(Chu`p for sometime)!

{In a very deep and sad tone} Your days to meet God are approaching faster than you can imagine`` {Khamoshee} :-( How soon would you like to leave ?

This threat at times works pretty well. Otherwise the dare-devilish smokers will remain aloof to the rest of the world`s concerns and their rebellious actions against the environmental protection agencies will keep on moving at a steady pace.

It was a surprise to see Soldotna expressing his concerns in words than in verses.

I was looking forward to reading Desire` or something by Cher this time.

Later,

Regards

soldotna suggests that since there are evils worse or as bad as tobacco smoking, one ought to tackle them first. for clarity one can only take up one issue in an article, and i one would welcome others to write articles on the other addictive products mentioned.

if one were to follow what soldotna is saying it would be impossible writing about reforming urban school education, for example, without also covering the issue of madrassa schools!

john muir is right is right in saying that all things are connected, but that doesn`t mean one cannot focus on a particular, and in this case, very serious addiction from which multinational and national tobacco companies are profiting.

It is disgusting to see everyone falling in line and making fashionable in-vogue anti-tobacco statement. How about talking about other addictions: chewing tobacco, alcohol, obesity. These addictions are killers too, you know!

Iris has asked how she can assist. You can contact me at daudpota@sdnpk.undp.org and I will be happy to put you on my tobacco mailing list. You can also contact netcp@apollo.net.pk which is an organization which will start working on an anti-tobacco campaign nationally.

Though the issue is worth addressing and some statistical info has been provided. I feel some aspects of smoking were either not addressed or were avoided, i.e why do people smoke ? Machoism is not the only reason! Then what ? I guess the author needed to perform indepth research here.

Sometimes education is not enough to enlighten a human mind to realize the good or bad for them. Just like folks who are in drugs, are not the illiterates only! It is sad and quite ironical but it is true as well.

I had an observation somewhile ago:

A couple of years back, I ran into a very nice lady who was pursuing her Masters and working full time. In other words very active.

One fine evening, I got an invitation for a dinner. So I took my Tushreef Ka Tokra to her apartment. The dinner was great and the tea was horrible (According to her, Sindhis are used to black tea)

After dinner, there was a powwow. During the powwow, our host could not let go of her chain smoking. That was the most disgusting end to a very fine dinner. Well, that is how she was.

It was no sense telling her what could happen to her, as she knew that already. What do you do then ? Qataa` Kalamee ? Well, I could not do that as well. I had to constantly remind her that she is slowly killing herself. No Use!

Now she is married and her husband hates her smoking. Well, the woman is pretty adamant and cannot leave it. So she smokes when she is away from home. This is the situation of a well educated person who grew up in a household where it was not considered bad to smoke. I got to know how she started smoking and I had all my sympathies with her. But I found out that such addictions in our society are not neccessarily taken as a symbol of unique entity or machoism :-(

...In fact the smokers are either depressed, escapists, cannot find an outlet to their feelings so they start leaning on addictions i.e be it alcohol or tobacco.

Probably the masses NEED positive addictions or alternatives than something that leads to ......

so soon.

Take Care

Very good ideas and genuine concerns Isa. Although I`m not a strong anti-tobacco lobbyist, I do feel strongly about the effortless encroachment by multi-national firms into Pakistan. It just seems that as soon as the `free market` for any product shrinks in the `first world` countries, big companies turn to the `free markets` of the `third world`. One appalling example is the availability of the banned fumigating poison, DDT, in Pakistan! I suppose one should guard one`s own interests (and we, Pakistanis, are to blame for that) but these supreme upholders of morality also stand accountable?especially when it comes to products with admitted health hazards.

There has always been a tendency on the part of Western nations, to compromise morality for the sake of commercial interests and to impose their products on Eastern markets. Be it the British opium trade in China by the East India Company, or the tea market created from scratch by Sir Thomas Lipton in British India. Western capitalist interests fighting for balance of trade (since it tilted towards the Eastern nations in pre-industrial times) have led countries to war because of their assumed `right` to sell products in our markets. The current expansion of tobacco companies in the `third world` countries, is an extension of the historic selfishness exhibited by western commercialism. If one was to truly implement `right to sell` and `free market` rules impartially, drugs would not be banned in the US or Europe. There is a fair enough market, for drugs in the US and in Europe, to serve as a good balancing item for the trade deficits of many Latin American and Asian countries.

Anyway, I apologize for digression into futile thought, my basic point is that we (in Pakistan) should not fall into the free-market garb (legitimized by foreign investment figures), so naively. In the past 3-5 years British Tobacco Company Ltd. has invested heavily in Pakistan, expanding offices all over the country. The people need to move fast and the first step is to create awareness. I really appreciate Q. Isa Daudpota`s effort and hope that it doesn`t go unnoticed. A strong fight is needed against tobacco companies in Pakistan at all levels (bureaucratic, commercial advertising, consumers). There is good enough precedence as well by now, so one can put up a stronger fight. I for one would like to help in any way possible on such a campaign in Pakistan, please give me some information on how to get in touch.

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Isa,

With your work in forming a national anti-tobacco coalition in Pakistan, you could help avoid painful smoking-related illnesses and deaths of millions of people in Pakistan over the next couple of decades, and the resulting suffering and cost to their loved ones. That would be no mean achievement, although the beneficiaries of your efforts will never know what you would have done for them. God speed your efforts.

As for the tobacco merchants, I have always wondered what kind of mentality it takes to make profit out of enslaving young and impressionable people to this hellish weed.