Law against public smoking must be enacted fast
Mar 01, 2011
EDITOR: The Uganda National Tobacco Control Association, the Environmental Action Network and The Ministry of Health are planning to come down strongly on smokers through the Tobacco Control Bill 2010. Non-smokers welcome this move.
EDITOR: The Uganda National Tobacco Control Association, the Environmental Action Network and The Ministry of Health are planning to come down strongly on smokers through the Tobacco Control Bill 2010. Non-smokers welcome this move.
Forcing a non-smoker to be a passive smoker (breathing in a smoker’s cigarette smoke involuntarily) is wrong and insensitive. I know a lady who used to work in an office where her boss used to smoke all the time and she used to choke as the boss puffed away contentedly on his cigarettes.
The chain-smoking boss had no idea about what his subordinate was going through! He was indifferent or ignorant about the fact that he was endangering her health by forcing her to inhale his secondhand smoke but there was nothing she could do about it just because he was the boss.
She continued being a passive smoker until she left that organisation. Passive smokers are at greater risk than actual smokers.
Their lungs not only fill with tar, carbon-monoxide and other poisons, their bodies are less resistant to the effects of the exposure and they get the very same illnesses as smokers.
The most lethal diseases is lung cancer and heart complications! It is for these reasons that a smoking ban ought to be enforced in public places in Uganda immediately. We need a smoke-free environment.
Josepha Jabo
Kampala
Forcing a non-smoker to be a passive smoker (breathing in a smoker’s cigarette smoke involuntarily) is wrong and insensitive. I know a lady who used to work in an office where her boss used to smoke all the time and she used to choke as the boss puffed away contentedly on his cigarettes.
The chain-smoking boss had no idea about what his subordinate was going through! He was indifferent or ignorant about the fact that he was endangering her health by forcing her to inhale his secondhand smoke but there was nothing she could do about it just because he was the boss.
She continued being a passive smoker until she left that organisation. Passive smokers are at greater risk than actual smokers.
Their lungs not only fill with tar, carbon-monoxide and other poisons, their bodies are less resistant to the effects of the exposure and they get the very same illnesses as smokers.
The most lethal diseases is lung cancer and heart complications! It is for these reasons that a smoking ban ought to be enforced in public places in Uganda immediately. We need a smoke-free environment.
Josepha Jabo
Kampala