12/09/2020

Second hand smoke is not just a nuisance but toxic chemicals

 As people spend more time at home, smoke wafting into people’s homes can be a deadly public health menace, and should not be mistaken for a neighbourly nuisance or a gripe about smoking from non-smokers....

Smokers cannot seem to catch a break, particularly with the suggestion to ban smoking near home balconies and windows by Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament and Group Parliament Committee for Sustainability and Environment Louis Ng in October reviving a national debate about how far the country should go to combat smoking completely.

Make smokers close their windows when they smoke, some suggested....

Ban smoking altogether, a few frustrated netizens said.Some public health experts, like Prof Chia Kee Seng, have gone even further to call for exterminating smoking completely seeing that it is “an archaic habit with no place in modern society”....

The consequences can be serious. “A lot of the residents complained to me about secondhand smoke because their children have asthma … yet they have a neighbour who’s constantly smoking at their windows,” Mr Ng highlights.

“Imagine if your neighbour is spraying toxic chemicals out of his house and you’re breathing it in … that’s exactly what secondhand smoke is.”  CNA

When would the non smokers be freed from the aggressive violation of smokers, spreading their toxic and smelly fumes into their homes or into their faces along public walkways? When would the world be free from these drug takers, the modern day opium smokers? When their addiction cravings demand that they take a puff, they would not hesitate to satisfy this craze and would not even mind standing beside dirty and smelly dustbins to inhale the drugs called cigarettes, casting images of the desperate opium smokers of yester years.

While it is very difficult for the older addicts to kick this dirty addiction, let's hope the younger generation would not be smarter not to carry on this unnecessary and money wasting habit and keep themselves clean and the environment clean, and the air clean for other beans to enjoy.

It is so sickening to be waken up in the middle of the night by a waft of smelly cigarette smoke to disrupt your sleep and struggling not to breathe in the foul air. It is a terrible encounter for non smokers when they need to breathe but cannot breathe and have to struggle to breathe when the air is filled with cigarette smokes that the smokers enjoy and think it is so nice and friendly and generous to share with the non smokers. What about the young, the infants and babies that are also forced to breathe in this toxic fumes and cannot say no, unable to say no?

When would the govt put a stop to this infringement of the non smokers right to breathe in simple clean and fresh air, free from smelly and toxic cigarette smokes? We are living so close to each other, only a few feet apart. There is no escape when someone living below or above or next door, smokes.  The world has more or less gotten rid of the smelly opium smokers. China was ruined by the mindless and unthinking consumption of opium in the past. Today's tobacco is just a milder form of drug addiction that the world can do without in exchange for having cleaner air and cleaner streets and cleaner everything and cleaner everywhere.

Would the smokers show some consideration and mercy on the non smokers? It is unbearable and intolerable to many non smokers. Nah, they simply don't care when they are desperate to smoke, just like all drug addicts. It is their right to smoke as long as the law allows it.

PS. I know that many smokers would be offended by this post. But non smokers cannot go on suffering in silence. The non smokers did not do anything to offend the smokers, just asking to be free to breathe in non contaminated, not smelly fresh air. They would not bother with the smokers if the smokers did not bother them.

 

An appeal in theindependent.com, 

An appeal to neighbours who smoke: Please close doors and windows

Singapore – Smokers have been urged to be considerate and close their doors and windows when indulging in their habit so that the smoke does not go into neighbouring flats.

On Thursday (Dec 3), Facebook user Candice Yeo made a request on the Complaint Singapore page. She said that no one was stopping those who want to smoke at home but they should shut their doors and windows tight.

She said that people smoked at windows and balconies because they did not want the smoke in their homes but it then floated into neighbouring houses.

She hoped that her request would be considered and those who smoke would be considerate enough to shut their windows and doors.


15 comments:

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

China suffered the defeat from the Opium War, another form of drugs, but never learn and still smoking like hell. A century of humiliation still not enough.

Fortunately there are signs that the young Chinese are smoking less and many are not taking up smoking.

A drug is a drug in whatever name.

1984 George Orwell said...

Smoking is actually a sign of a person's weakness and stupidity.

Even chain-smokers like the Chairman Deng Xiao Ping of China had shown to the world that at times he was weak and stupid. Weak to have succumbed to a bad habit of chain-smoking. Stupid for wasting money and affecting people around him with poisonous smoke.

Anonymous said...

Stupid for spending money to become a smelly object. Pity the wife and children.

Anonymous said...

It is all a smoke and mirror issue.

Just ban smoking and the problem is solved.

Maybe we fear being sanctioned for violating human rights!

1984 George Orwell said...

Cigarettes bring in huge taxes for government's coffers. How to pay Multi-Millionaire Ministers if taxes from vices are cut?

Anonymous said...

Before ban cigarettes must first ban millionaire ministers. Anyone who becomes a millionaire cannot be ministers in government or in church. Likewise, both are money political hacks not for the people politicians.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha

They should also ban plastics. But they do not. Climate change is only for the small people to use one less plastic bag, but big corporations, like Coca Cola, are allowed to pollute the environment worldwide with hundreds of billions of plastic bottles.

Governments can do much to change the use of plastics, but they prefer to support the propaganda that ordinary beings are the cause of climate change with using one more plastic bag.

All bullshit to favour the rich but punish the poor!

Anonymous said...

Why pay to smoke when there is free smoke for hardcore smokers from Indonesian forest fires wafting into people's homes every year, except this year so far.

Can the Government do something after years of doing something about it?

Anonymous said...

The truth is, does smoking really cause lung cancer? It may be a contributory factor, as with all other activities and things we eat nowadays. Vehicle exhaust, to me, is the biggest contributory factor but never in the limelight. It is too big to blame!

I have many relatives who died of lung cancer, but all are non smokers. When this happens too often, the blaming migrated to second hand smoke as a greater cause. But when families have no smoking members, they had to look for another scapegoat. Then they found it. It is because they spend too much time in the Kitchen cooking and inhaling all the fumes. And so the fairy tale continues to evolve and mutate.

There is this story of a patient who went to a doctor and they happened to talk about the
dangers of smoking. The patient told the doctor that his grandfather died at 90 years of age, despite being a smoker all through his life. The doctor replied that if the grandfather had not been smoking he would probably live up to 100 years.

Then the patient told the doctor that he had a relative who did not smoke, but died of lung cancer at age 50. The doctor told the patient that if that relative had been smoking he would have died at age 40.

The moral of the story is - never argue with your doctor. You can never win.

1984 George Orwell said...

Covid-19: No Detection Of Infection Does Not Mean There Is No Infection

"SINGAPORE — The Royal Caribbean cruise ship passenger who tested positive for Covid-19 was an 83-year-old man who reported to the ship’s onboard medical centre with diarrhoea.

He underwent a mandatory Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction test as part of onboard protocols, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said in an update on Wednesday (Dec 9).

The passenger had undergone testing before boarding the cruise and tested negative."

The above report was made by TODAY Online.


My Comments:


1. If you are tested negative, it does not mean you are totally free from the COVID-19 virus infection.

2. It only means that on that day, at that point in time, the infectious virus inside your body could not be detected, yet.

3. It can also mean that the testing system is not very effective or faulty.

4. It can also mean that it could be a rush job and therefore efficiency and accuracy could have been sacrificed for the purpose of expediency and profit-motive.

5. Alternatively, the old gentleman could have contracted the COVID-19 disease from someone on the cruise. That someone could be a healthy carrier from the crew, the cooks, the service personnel or from the other passengers.

6. Moral of the story is:

A cruise to nowhere can turn up to be a cruise to somewhere - hospital or cemetery.

7. Conclusion.

Don't be over-confident. No detection of infection does not mean there is no infection. It means that the coronavirus is smarter than we humans think we are.

Anonymous said...

Latest, two participants of Pfizer vaccine trial died.

An American doctor, Dr Christian, warned the vaccines using RNA is dangerous on two counts. One, it is from animal DNA and can cause infertility in women. Two, the vaccine also has nano particles included to track and monitor the recipients whereabout.

Be warned.

Anonymous said...

No wonder Trump cuts additional purchase of Pfizer vaccine.

But has it been approved by FDA yet? Anyway this news will be swept aside and perhaps the deaths will be attributed to other reasons. Trust Trump, USA and Pfizer to wriggle their way out.

Understand Trump has also issued an Executive Order and wants Pfizer to provide the vaccine for USA use first. What about Pfizer's commitment to other countries? This will be interesting.

Anonymous said...

The third stage of reopening was supposed to be end of this year, but has been delayed because of the slow token take up rate.

No infection does not mean the fight is over. The virus has been returning in many countries and wrecking havoc. How long it will be around, no one really knows, even with a vaccine in use. Remember, vaccines prevents infection but does not kill the virus in the air and on surfaces overall.

On a separate note, those who took on the 'Cruise to 'Norway' trip are now facing the consequences. Itchy witchy spider backsides!

Anonymous said...

Virgo49 9.58

Remember Sinkies are very rich, the richest country in ASEAN. So many newly minted millionaires every other Mondays and Thursdays. The Government encourages Sinkies to spend, spend and spend and even gives money for that.

Rich Sinkies must show they are still rich, so die die must travel. Not so rich also must pretend to be very rich and die die must follow. Yusoff left in the pocket will fight fight and fight.

They say the travel industry is picking up. I would say 'picking up the pieces' will be more appropriate, but picking up chanting is what the Mat's call 'shiok sendiri'.

Anonymous said...

Sinkies are like that. The Kiasu mentality is deeply ingrained. Cannot lose out, otherwise will be branded as 'Mountain Tortoise'.

So you see, even 'Cruise to Nowhere' is as good as 'Cruise to Norway'. Just living up to the Kiasu dream.

By the way, who is paying for the testing?