SABAH SAYS… Be More Mindful of Where You’re Smoking

I am usually the first person in a crowd to detect cigarette smoke. I am really, really sensitive to it and maybe that comes down to the fact that I was around heavy cigarette smokers as a child. In all honesty, the smell of cigarettes makes me feel sick and from the moment my nostrils prick up like a sniffer dog who has found the goods to the smell of it sneakily wafting over from metres away, my first instinct is to get up and leave. I just can’t stand the stuff!

Now, I’m completely for respecting all individuals and their choices in life, and in no way is this an attack upon those that choose to smoke, but here is my issue: I and anyone else that has chosen not to smoke or are not even old enough to make an informed decision, should not have to inhale your toxic second-hand fumes as we are going about our everyday lives and minding our own business. It’s just not fair.

The tobacco epidemic is a worldwide issue with over one billion smokers globally. What’s shocking is that tobacco will take the lives prematurely of up to half of its users, with over six million people losing their lives as a result of direct tobacco use every year. What’s even more shocking however, is that almost an extra 900,000 people also lose their lives to tobacco every single year through no fault of their own – they lose their lives as non-smokers having been exposed to second-hand smoke. 

Shockingly, there are more than 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer. Second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in adults, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. In pregnant women, it can cause low birth weight of the baby, and in infants that are exposed to it? Sudden death.

Comprehensive, national smoke-free laws protect 18% of the world’s population. In July 2007, the English government passed a new law making it illegal for anyone to smoke in an enclosed public place and within the workplace and I, for one, was very happy. This meant that finally everyone could use the train station, eat in a restaurant or go to work without having to worry about inhaling second-hand smoke; at the same time, this was a big step forward for public health. Mauritius followed suit in 2009, restricting alcohol consumption and smoking in public. But, from my own personal experience in the relatively short time I have been here, I have seen how many people here, both expats and locals alike, act as if the law does not apply to them. Let me tell you more.

In Mauritius, smoking is banned on public transport and in most indoor public places, with specifically designated areas in indoor workplaces where smoking is allowed. According to the laws, smoking is 100% prohibited in bars, pubs, nightclubs, restaurants and anywhere where the public has access that prepares, serves or sells food, among many others.  While I was pregnant with our second child who is now seven months old, there were many times while eating out where I would have to get up and move because someone nearby had sparked up a cigarette, ignoring the ‘no smoking’ sign on the wall along with the heavily pregnant woman nearby.  What’s even worse is that there were times when our three-year-old son was also with us and despite these smokers having seen a family together which included a heavily pregnant woman and a very young child, they would still have the audacity to smoke – and not just smoke, but literally chain-smoke, one after the other after the other, even though they could see it was bothering us. 

A couple of times we would point it out to the management of wherever we were who would ask the smokers to stop smoking, but I feel like in this particular instance, the law is really not enforced as much as it should be. You even find some restaurants that have ashtrays sitting and waiting patiently to be filled with ash - despite smoking being banned anywhere where food is prepared, served and sold – like it’s normal.

The reason I write this article now is because just the other day, while having brunch in Tamarin with my husband and baby (the three-year-old was at school), there were around six different people that somehow decided that smoking in a food establishment where people were eating was okay and secondly, that smoking around a seven-month-old baby was also okay. Well, it’s not okay and honestly, the people that do this need to learn some respect and need to practise being more mindful about where they are and the people that are around them, before pulling cigarettes and lighters from their pockets. Not everybody wants to breathe in your poisonous fumes and 28% of the people that die every year due to second-hand smoke are children, who are not even old enough to make such life choices!

I know people joke on online forums and on social media about there being laws in Mauritius which nobody actually abides by, but when that common practice law breaking negatively impacts and harms other people, it really is no joke. Like I mentioned earlier, inhaling second-hand smoke can cause SUDDEN DEATH in infants, and as the mother of an infant child and a preschooler, I urge you to not be the reason that someone loses a child.

So today, all I ask is that if you are a smoker and find yourself needing to smoke in a public setting, just have a look around before you light up and see whether there is anyone around that could be harmed or be made to feel uncomfortable by your smoking, and then take appropriate action and move elsewhere. It’s not too much to ask… right?

Light & Love,

Sabah