Stubbing out smoking

It’s a short trip from adventure to addiction. For many, it begins with the thrill of trying at a young age something that is prohibited. When did you light your first cigarette? The memory of the first drag stays for long: mine is somehow linked to the iconic 1976 Bollywood film Kabhi Kabhie. Every time I listen to its memorable songs or watch clips, they remind me of the first furtive attempt to smoke. A close friend and I had gone to the Children’s Park in Panaji, Goa, one afternoon after school, when few people would be around, to try out a menthol-tipped cigarette amidst the anonymity afforded by the tall, lush green trees. But we soon found ourselves facing that film’s shooting: many of the trees were being set on fire with cotton bales on branches, agitated horses were being calmed, instructions were being yelled out, as actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh and others got into action, shooting the climax of the film. The dense smoke from the fire on the trees disturbed us. We tried to light the cigarette, but gave up as nerves took over, and soon fled the scene before anyone could spot us and report us home.

Fortunately, that first failed attempt at smoking did not lead to addiction over the years and whatever little I indulged in stopped completely long ago. But we would never have been able to buy that cigarette we thought was ‘cool’ if the kind of laws announced last week by New Zealand were in force. Under the novel law, those aged 14 and below are to be banned from purchasing tobacco, and the legal smoking age is to increase every year, to ultimately create a smoke-free generation by 2025.

Widely termed as ‘historic’, New Zealand’s Smokefree 2025 Action Plan takes state intervention to a new high. Says Ayesha Verrall, associate minister of health: “We want to make sure young people never start smoking so we will make it an offence to sell or supply smoked tobacco products to new cohorts of youth. People aged 14 when the law comes into effect will never be able to legally purchase tobacco. We are also reducing the appeal, addictiveness and availability of smoked tobacco products. New laws will mean only smoked tobacco products containing very low levels of nicotine can be sold, with a significant reduction in the number of shops who can sell them. Preventing people from starting to smoke and helping those who smoke to quit means we are covering both ends of the spectrum. We know it’s really tough to break the habit and some people who smoke will understandably need lots of support leading up to these changes taking effect.”

Power of effective messaging

The action plan made headlines across the globe, and also raised some doubts. The effort is to cut the current number of 13 per cent of New Zealand’s smoking adults to 5 per cent by 2025, but there are fears that the new law could create a black market for cigarettes, with criminal gangs filling the gap in demand. There is also the issue of vaping: the law excludes e-cigarettes, which produce a vapour that delivers some nicotine to the user. Seen as a substitute to help give up smoking, e-cigarettes are not harmless, since they contain hazardous cancer-causing substances.

Debashish Munshi, professor of management communication at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, supports the ‘path-breaking’ ban, but says: “The exclusion of vaping from the otherwise innovative plan is a worry. A recent survey of secondary school students conducted by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand showed that a rapidly growing number of teenagers are taking up vaping and being exposed to its toxic effects. The government argues that vaping is less dangerous than smoking and that vaping can be a means to quit smoking. But vaping too has harmful effects, many e-cigarettes have high nicotine content, and there are far too many unknown risks with the potential for a new form of addiction. Studies show that many teenagers who pick up vaping have never smoked before. The key to a totally smoke-free environment lies in aligning stricter regulations around vaping for young people with the smoking ban. Effective messaging about the harms of toxic substances and resourcing to attract youth to healthier pastimes would be very useful too.”

A range of bans and restrictions is in place in various countries, the most common include a ban on smoking in workplaces, curbs on advertising and displays in retail shops, and health warnings on packs with gory images of ailments linked to smoking (such as in Australia and Canada). Michael Bloomberg, when he was mayor of New York, financed anti-smoking campaigns in Indonesia and elsewhere. Several countries have jacked up prices, making it dearer to buy cigarette packs. From the time when smoking was fashionable, even considered therapeutic — King George VI was advised to smoke to relax his throat to help deal with his stammering — it is now widely accepted as a no-no and the cause of hundreds of thousands of premature deaths. ‘Thanks for not smoking’ is a common message in public spaces. The World Health Organisation has launched a Tobacco Free Initiative to strengthen tobacco control and monitor use in the western Pacific region, which has an estimated 386.5 million adult smokers, or about one-third of the world’s smokers.

The act also inspired a popular phrase: ‘smoking like a chimney’. But it remains a matter of debate whether the bans and restrictions are followed and implemented, since the discourse of smoking runs against the lure of hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes that the tobacco industry brings to state coffers across the globe, besides providing employment to a large number of people (read voters) — best exemplified in ‘The Smoke Screen’, one of the episodes of the BBC’s ever popular political sitcom, Yes Prime Minister. Many smokers dismiss calls and campaigns to quit, calling it a ‘true life pleasure’, and cite several reasons why they smoke — including giving something for hands to do and give the illusion of doing something — how it helps them fit in with peers, or see them through various moods, phases of creativity and stages of life. Winston Churchill, who was often seen with his favourite Cuban cigar, once said: “I drink a great deal. I sleep a little, and I smoke cigar after cigar. That is why I am in two-hundred-percent form.”

Death of a smokin’ hot romance

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