THIS week’s two sen worth will definitely antagonise some friends. The news on the Fatwa declaring shisha smoking as haram was very much welcomed by the health conscious, and even the not so health conscious.
Those who feel that the ban is timely include parents and those who have lost a family member or a friend to the big C or cancer.
Those who feel that the ban is unnecessary are those who are smokers themselves and argue that the big C can be triggered by other unhealthy habits and not just smoking.
Eye personally would like to see the Ministry of Health impose a ban also on what is now popularly known as vaping and also on the ordinary cigarette.
The concept of the shisha (water pipe) and vaping (e-cigarettes) is almost similar.
E-cigarettes were first produced in China in 2003. Since then, these e-cigarettes have been produced and marketed worldwide.
The American Association of Public Health Physicians has even endorsed e-cigarettes because these devices supposedly save
lives against tobacco-related illnesses. They do not save lives.
In fact, unless you have a laboratory built in your home to run tests on the contents of the liquid concoction in the e-cigarette cartridges, you will never be sure of what really goes into the vaping liquids.
It doesn’t matter what the label says about the content. The manufacturers are intent on their product and labels can be manipulated to mislead.
First of all, let us understand that the e-cigarette cartridges contain essentially liquid nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerine and polyethylene glycol 400. This concoction is designed to replicate the smoking sensation in tobacco cigarettes.
These days, the liquid comes in different flavours as well – vanilla, strawberry, you name it, they’ve got it.
So how sure can one be, that these are not chemically produced flavours? How sure are you, that, as you take a drag and inhale the concoction of chemicals into your lungs that your action is ‘safer’ than smoking regular cigarettes just because the label says so?
Friends have let it be known that there are vaping groups in the city – vapers (people who smoke e-cigarettes) who get together to try out new flavours and new vaping devices over a football game or a movie at home. The thought of this brings to mind an opium den. Enough said.
The vapers order their stock through the Internet and most of these cartridges come from China.
And hence, Eye believe that the time has come for the Ministry of Health to carry out its role and responsibility in creating a healthier society, even if it means being tough and implementing bans and heavy penalties on the import, sales, possession and smoking of e-cigarettes.
Still not convinced? Research has found that vaping is no less dangerous than actual smoking.
And yes, researchers from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) have found cancer-causing components in 19 brands sold in the US.
Among others, the chemical components nitrosamine, anabasine, myosmine and B-nicotyrine, which are harmful to humans, were found when vapers exhaled. A poisonous chemical component was also found in some of the brands.
Hence, the claim that vaping does not cause the effects of second-hand smoke is not true.
This, now brings us to the ordinary cigarettes. The gruesome pictures illustrating the effects of smoking printed on the boxes do not seem to have had any influence on smokers to cut their puffs.
Neither has the increase in cigarette prices. ‘Rokok selam’ and even China made ‘herbal’ cigarettes are widely available.
The prohibition on minors under the age of 18 from buying cigarettes is also not enforced. Kopitiam and shop owners are happy to turn a blind eye and sell cigarettes to kids who approach them purportedly to buy cigarettes for their parents.
The ban on smoking in public places also seems to be taken for granted. The Eye has, on many occasions, encountered business owners, workers and shoppers smoking inside Wisma Saberkas in Kuching.
It is bad enough that the air quality of the world which we live in is on the decline. We do not need additional pollutants.
The bottom line is, if smokers and potential smokers cannot help themselves, if they cannot realise how much they reek of cigarette stink, if they do not comprehend the hazard they are posing to themselves and those around them, the Ministry of Health has to step up efforts to curb any form of smoking or vaping, be it normal cigarettes, cigars, rolled tobacco, e-cigarettes or shisha.
Comments can reach the writer via [email protected].