Second-hand smoke and Government's dithering

Egerton Chang, Contributor

Recently, my general practitioner told me that she saw a 'shadow' on the X-ray of my chest. She said she also saw early signs of emphysema, which is among a group of diseases known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). She immediately asked if I smoked or had ever smoked.

My doctor was concerned about the precursors of cancer and, knowing that cigarette smoking is the leading cause of COPD, that prompted her to ask. She recommended that I do an MRI to rule out any possibility of cancer.

Now I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. Once, when I was I child, I had tried to. However, after two whiffs I decided, then and there, this was not for me. Therefore, that question took me a bit off guard.

Other than the occasional puff, no one in my family really smoked, so I had a relatively smoke-free childhood/adolescence. However, when I started to work at Jamaica Citizens Bank first, and then at the Industrial Commercial Developments Limited, that changed dramatically. Workers often chain-smoked.

My doctor said maybe that was the genesis. It hit home like a ton of bricks. It would be cruel irony or a terrible twist of fate that I, having prided myself in not succumbing to that dreaded habit, could have cancer from second-hand smoke. Moreover, I had banned smoking in my current workplace from 1995, which further compounded my anguish. In fact, I had actively encouraged workers to stop. My efforts extending to buying the patch for a close employee and providing incentives for him and other workers to quit.

We were relieved when a subsequent X-ray and an MRI proved negative.

Nevertheless, I wonder why successive governments have dithered about banning cigarette smoking from the workplace and other public places such as government offices, educational institutions, places of entertainment, restaurants, bars and nightclubs?

This has immediate implications for my family. You see, I am associated with two popular nightclubs, which each of my two eldest sons control. This exposes them to an extraordinarily high level of carcinogens from cigarette smoke for extended periods. Sometimes I worry that they are literally working themselves to death.

Associated diseases

Diseases associated with second-hand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke are well known, and include cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases. Mitigation of these would significantly reduce the strain on government health expenditures.

It is estimated that only 15 per cent of cigarette smoke gets inhaled by the smoker. The remaining 85 per cent lingers in the air for everyone to breathe. Research has shown that if a person spends more than two hours in a room where someone is smoking, the non-smoker inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes (University of Minnesota). Further, for every two hours you spend in a smoke-filled environment such as a bar or nightclub, you are inhaling the equivalent of one pack of cigarettes in SHS.

SHS is the third-leading preventable cause of disability and early death (after active smoking and alcohol) in the United States. For every eight smokers who die from smoking, one innocent bystander dies from SHS.

SHS contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including more than 40 cancer-causing agents and 200 known poisons. Second-hand smoke has been classified by the EPA as a Class A carcinogen.

Some clubs have installed air-filtration scrubbers to remove the nuisance of tobacco odour. However, according to the manufacturers of these very scrubbers, the hazardous toxins and cancer-causing agents still remain (www.weinproducts.com/smoke.htm). The only safe measure would be to have smoke-free environments to protect the health of all.

The Jamaican Government of the day ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2005 and added its voice to the 2007 CARICOM Heads of Government Port-of-Spain Declaration in which regional governments pledged to accelerate efforts to combat the bane of tobacco.

Additionally, in 2009, CARICOM heads (including another Jamaican government) agreed to take steps to "curb smoking in public places" in recognition that non-smokers are also affected by the carcinogens and other toxic components in cigarette smoke.

Significant provisions of the FCTC treaty require that parties implement certain measures. (See table.)

No shutdown

It is not true, however, that the legislation will ban cigarette sales and result in the shutdown of the tobacco industry.

Ironically, in an article titled 'Carreras continues push for local tobacco legislation", Alicia Dunkley, Observer senior reporter, on May 31, 2011, quoted Richard Pandohie, managing director of Carreras Jamaica, thusly: "We want the legislation to come because it also is part of the requirements to deal with the illicit trade. It has to come, the Government has no choice, but we want all the facts to be put on the table, all the evidence to be put there and the regulations to be done."

It is similarly ironic that in May 2011, the then opposition spokesman on health, Dr Fenton Ferguson, expressed disappointment with the Jamaican Government's delay in implementing a ban on smoking in public areas.

Ferguson said it was unacceptable for Jamaica to be a signatory to the FCTC since 2005, and still be in breach of its obligations under the treaty.

Now that Dr Ferguson is the minister of health, can we take it as gospel that the Tobacco Control Bill will become law before Jamaica celebrates its 50th birthday?

Jamaica demands it!

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