Nigeria takes Big Tobacco to court about kids

Why kids smoke

Sometimes one can wonder how kids get into smoking and eventually get hooked on the thing for life.

Growing up in Nigeria, there was a bit of a rascal in me and I remember times with my cousins we had a puff at strips of matting (sleeping mats) which had the look and feel of real cigarettes but their potency and efficacy was not known apart from the fact that they were unsmokable.

I had a puff or two before I was a teen but only really started when I was 14, however, it was a secret act of rebellion and quest for adulthood – however, kids caught smoking exacted the highest penalties of corporal punishment and serious ostracism from older members of society along with status amongst peers.

Resisting peer pressure

I always drew the line about what I would try and I remember one episode when I was in company of people more wayward and off the rails than I was, who were smoking pot, I refused to participate whilst others did – a few days after, one of the tough girls in that group leapt out of a first-floor window to escape many things I cannot recount.

She spent a few weeks in hospital and returned to her ways and people usually do.

I did have an inclination to start smoking pipes, but never got that far with the threat that someone at polytechnic was going to inform my parents of my smoking; one had to be more discrete about these vices.

Quitting by religion

At 18, I got religion and it just stopped, the desire, the craving and wanting and I did not have another puff till 17 years later and none since.

Whilst religion seemed a good thing, one must say that there is nothing that preaches against smoking as one can find preaching against alcohol. Basically, smoking is just a “social vice” which has been promoted into a sin because basically, it is what adults do rather than kids.

If however, one sees smoking as an addiction and hence a type of bondage from which one would want to be delivered then there is scope for belief systems to help.

There is also the matter of stewardship of your body in such a way as not to bring it into harm’s way – though not many take the body as seriously as they show even though it is the only shell of representation we have to interact in this world.

Those rotten companies

I am quite interested in the move by Nigeria of suing international cigarette companies on the matter of childhood smoking. They probably have a cause, I am not sure if they have a case.

Indeed, there should be serious educational material that talks about the dangers of smoking and the consequences of the same beyond threats and housewife tales.

When I was a kid, the most glamorous adverts were the smoking ones which showcased Marlboro Man and made every kid want to live their lives like him.

Tobacco companies would want to present a responsible corporate image to the West whilst they aggressively ply their trade in developing and emerging economies because that is where the growth for their market is, until some smart head shows to replace fossil fuels with tobacco.

Intoxicating Africa for Western profits

These emerging economies would usually not have addiction mitigating services or disease amelioration systems to handle cancers and other smoking-related disorders such that once people are hooked, they are truly hooked as they dig their graves with each long draw of the puff.

It is a welcome move and if does not get the companies doing something positive about eliminating access to the toxic weed to children they would know that the times of dumping poisons in Africa to keep their profits in the West are coming to an end.

In general, smoking is becoming less a social statement with smoking bans in New York, London and many other cities, smokers are finding ways of a healthier outlook to life; there are some who see a human-rights element to the freedom to puff, hopefully the quest of a healthier life would outweigh any temporary benefits that lead to long-term terminal illness.

References

Illicit tobacco trade contributes to global disease burden

Smoking curbs: The Global Picture

The African tobacco conundrum

Taking the World Up in Smoke

Tips to stop smoking

Chew your butts

Blink for the litter

Being a pedestrian, cyclist or user of public transport, it is amazing the amount litter one sees on the pavements, the bike paths and at the transport stops.

Usually, it is not the usual crisps or chocolate wrappers or cans of fizzy drink but patches of discarded chewing gum and cigarette butts of various lengths depending on the finished state of the cigarette as the bus or tram approaches.

Even with the no-smoking areas in stations and specially designated areas for smoking we still have those butts on the ground despite the fact that stubbing bins and sand dishes are provided at those locations.

I find that I frown at people who just discard their litter no matter how close they are to a proper discarding container known to many as a rubbish bin, but it appears that many are oblivious of its function.

A menace, a real menace

Cigarette butts and chewing gun are usually surreptitiously cast off either with a flick for the cigarette or some hand-mouth contact then hand-furniture contact as the chewed gum finds a home after the mastication.

By comparison, it probably no worse than picking ones nose and flicking the rotten greenish yellow grime or using ones hand to transfer spittle from mouth to desired destination.

The chewing gum problem is so bad that one dares not touch the undersides of seats or table as there is the possibility that an “Oink woz here” gum marker has been a stuck there.

With DNA testing and so on, by the time we all have biometric passports and databases full of information that the computers would puke at their content, it might be possible to decipher the marker and fine the culprit for vandalising public places or littering the street.

Stuck with it, annoyingly

The humongous machines needed to remove the gum makes one appreciate the intolerance of chewing gum inSingapore. That ban has since been relaxed but it shows just how much this littering can be the bane of a permissive and free society.

If you have had to scrap chewing gum off your shoe soles, you will understand, but worse still having to get it off your clothes because some asocial twerp has stuck it on a seat or rest then you only have recourse; be livid with rage as you surf the Internet for ideas.

I do wonder if properly policed and enforced fines for littering can help change attitudes to stop this eye-sore.

I have nothing against smoking but I am having serious problems with accompanying poor social graces that allows for the disregard of non-smokers and the littering of our streets. It is like being allowed to relieve oneself in any place one might choose rather than the conveniences.

The cleaning up of the butts is easier and is done either by street sweepers or vagrants looking for unfinished cigarettes.

New edibles – science and nature collide

Starting with chewing cum, I would suggest that it be reconstituted that after enjoying the satisfaction of chewing the gum it can be swallowed.

Better still, once the gum is put in the mouth, it should have some genetic affinity material that makes it want to slither down towards the tonsils that it becomes impossible not to swallow it.

Moving on to cigarettes; tobacco companies can have a major money making new lease of life by making those butts, stubs or filters edible.

Once the smoker and drawn in all the nicotine they can through smoking, they get the final nicotine fix by being able to chew what is left of the un-smoked cigarette having flicked off the ashened part with the possibility of flavouring the bit with a flavour applicator that doubles as a lighter.

Something like a vanilla lighter or strawberry lighter if not chilli or curry lighter comes to mind.

Anybody would quit smoking after a few of these.

Gum profiling and butt identity

Just as our liberties, freedoms and secrets are being sold down the line of outrageous anti-terrorism laws masquerading as patriotism, Big-Brother can analyse discarded cigarette butts to and send notices to the homes of the culprits.

The global market-place is rejuvenated for the food and flavours industry, the tobacco companies can move into health flavours, the DNA profiling and instant identification business would be rife.

Imagine wireless computer terminals at every lamp-post with finger-print and retina scanning sign-on and a biometric analysis rod which can assess DNA material from all sorts of litter, mine databases and send off the notices.

You get a gift voucher for your civic duties and the culprit lives in a world that would soon be too real to forget you first read about it here.

References

Commercial cleaning supplies - Chewing Gum Removal - Gum-Out

Cigarette Butt Litter- Two Billion Littered Butts a Day

CigaretteLitter.Org - The Facts About Cigarette Butts and Litter - Cigarette Litter