xchineboix

Smoking looks like a personal matter but actually is a public issue.  This time I witness more people smoke in Asia.  Especially there are more young or female smokers.  I was surounded with lots of smokers no matter where I moved.  I had no place to escape to.

In US, people are very advanced in control smoking.  It has become a human right and public health problem.  People have the right to smoke if they chose to do so.  But others should have right not to be forced to be a second hand smoker too.  Scientists have proved second hand smoking is one of the major causes for lung cancer.  The control of smoking has evolved in several stages.  First they have minimum age for buying tabacco by checking ID.  Then people complained the smell and many public indoor places have to set up designate non-smoking area.  But this is not too much help either.  As long as you stay in same room, non-smoking area just fool you by not seeing the smoke but you still inhale the air what the smokers blew out.  Therefore many cities start  banning smoking in restaurant, bar and public places.  Then people feel still not eought.  Government moved into next stage, ban smoking in certain outdoor areas such as beach.  Smokers have fewer and fewer available areas to smoke.  Several years ago, many state governments filed lawsuit against tabacco companies because smoking increase government's health cost.  They want tabacco companies to pay for the cost and damage to citizen's health.

Europe has many smokers too, British, French and German.  People smoke everywhere, subway, side walk, restaurant etc.  I hate people smoke inside restaurant because I can't really enjoy a meal.   Recently I saw some progress.  France began banning smoking in restaurant and bar which I think is an unthinkable.  France has cafe and restaurant almost everywhere and used to full of smokers.

I used an internet cafe in CHN to access e-mail.  But there were so many smokers in the room that it was very foggy and I felt like becoming a "Virginia smoked Ham" myself.  I talked the front desk why there is not control of smoking.  Then, I heard a reply from the front desk girl which I think a fabrication and peole were fooled to believe in it.  The girl told me the media reporters wrote a report that the people died in CHN during SARS panic are non-smokers.  Therefore she implied the smoking might be good for health and help people fend off SARS.  I can't believe what I heard.  Even if it was true that all people died are non-smoker, it doesn't prove the other way around, smoking helps human.  Not to mention the non-smoker's story still need to be verified.  People need to have rationale to make judgement what were reported in media, especially in certain media environments.  I think such  news may be spreaded on purpose.  I don't buy such story.  These days, many news were manuplicated by certain groups or entities in ways to achieve certain goals they want without neutral third party to criticize and balance.  Journalists' ethics are very important and they could mislead ordinary people.