Smokes here, smokes there, smokes everywhere so much so that a non-smoker like me (I do smoke pipe occassionally) has nowhere to hide – no area is really free of smoke. Perhaps, only ‘our’ bedroom is the closest thing to a 100 per cent smoke-free domain.
By ‘our’ bedroom I mean the one my other half shares with me every now and then. It is smoke-free because of my rule number one: ‘no smoking allowed in the bedroom’ – well, after almost two decades that rule has been adhered to strictly though I wish she will call it quit one day in the nearest future.
It is always the father that smokes; or in many cases both parents are caught up in this smoky web. Both my parents, for example, were smokers – my dad started as a ‘rokok apung’ (nipah palm leave) smoker and ended up with the likes of Rough Rider, Matterhorn and other lesser known brands whereas poor mom took to the ‘green’ tobacco know as ‘semakau sik’ rolled up with a special-made thin paper and later she ended up with pipe tobacco ‘Erinmore Flake’or Cap Nanas.
My eldest brother Edward Jelani, 76, quit smoking about 20 years ago while our brother Jon @ Chandi, 70, is still enjoying the puff – “I will quit if the price of cigarette (a packet of 20) hits RM20,” he said many years ago.
His three sons also happily contribute to the thriving tobacco industry – the government policy to lie low on cigarette ads and constant hike in prices of cigarettes does very little to stop the upward trend in the country’s smoking graph.
Infact in 1974 while preparing for our Higher School Certificate (HSC) Examination I jumped into the wagon and was proudly puffing 3 Fives (555) or State Express that came in a packet of seven, priced at RM1 only that an Upper Sixth student could well afford, especially after selling 28 pieces of batik painting in a one-man exhibition held in conjunction with the Methodist Secondary School’s 25th Anniversary Celebration in Sibu. Two reasons why I started smoking were to keep myself awake and to scare away mosquitoes while studying in a classroom without fan or air conditioning unit. Our warden at the MSS Hostel most of the time pretended not to see; may his kind soul rest in eternal peace.
I quit after Form Six and despite earning a decent income by 1975 standard in RASCOM Sibu Info/Psywar Section as Assistant Editor of Berita Rayat, an Iban monthly newspaper, there was no urge to smoke. Nevertheless, while being in my first three months at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Minden, Penang, I was enticed to the habit again. This time, it was mostly cheap cigars but no cigarette at all. However, bad coughing forced me to quit till my teaching days in the college and later the schools when I took to pipe smoking, largely influenced by the movies, especially sea captains and later by the present TYT, Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud. I still have my two pipes – my favourite one, bought in KL in 1982, was stolen by a Brunei cop who took it from my pouch when I became unconscious after hitting my Daewoo Racer II into ‘Lapau’ gate at Bandar Seri Begawan in 2000. The ones still in my keeping now include a piece bought in BSB costing B$ 5.90 (imported from Shanghai) and another one bought in Serikin costing RM10. My favourite tobacco is Blend 11 that now costs not more than RM18 per packet. The present one in my office drawer was purchased in 2016.
Now that both my two stepsons and their mom are smokers, I am inhaling secondary smokes daily, which according to studies are equally bad when compared to primary smokes inhaled by real smokers.
There have been thousands of articles written on smoking. I just use this opportunity to share with readers some facts from my own reading and discoveries.
For example, according to research made by Centres For Disease Control (CDC), there are more deaths caused by smoking than by all of the following combined: HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, car accidents, and firearm-related incidents. Each day about 2,100 youth and young adults who smoked once in a while become daily cigarette smokers. More than 16 million Americans live with a serious illness caused by smoking and on average smokers die 10 years earlier than non-smokers.
It has been found out that each cigarette contains about 7,000 chemicals, many of which are poisonous and about 70 cause cancers. Some of the worst ones are nicotine, a deadly poison; arsenic which is used in rat poison; methane, a component of rocket fuel; ammonia that is found in floor cleaner; cadmium used in batteries; carbon monoxide, a part of car exhaust and formaldehyde which is used to preserve body tissue. Other researchers also have found out that cigarette contains acetone, a flammable solvent used in nail polish remover; benzene which is found in rubber cement; lead as found in batteries as well as tar, a material used for paving roads.
These cigarette ingredients also speed up aging, researchers have found out.
According to another research finding, pertaining to the lungs and cells, tar is depositied in one’s lung and contains chemicals called carcinogens, which encourage the development of cancer cells in your body. This results in one’s exposure to chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde that have been linked to a range of different cancers, such as leukemia and kidney cancer, and as such confirms another finding as aforementioned.
Adding to these, acetaldehyde, one of the chemicals in cigarette smoke, attacks the connective tissue holding your skin together, and makes your face sag and wrinkle. The finding says your body is sapped of vitamin C, which is an antioxidant that plays a vital role in the production of collagen – a natural protein crucially important in keeping your skin healthy and supple. It says that your circulation is to suffer because oxygen is not pumped around your blood vessels as effectively as in a non-smoker, giving the smoker a dull complexion.
It advises smokers on the damage done to their teeth as the toxic chemicals in cigarette tobacco create sticky ‘tar’ residue all over their (smokers’) teeth which will become stained as smoking redudes the amount of saliva in their mouth.
There is a great risk of periodontitis or gum disease that causes inflamation around the teeth leading to swollen gums and bad breath. In severe cases, it may even cause the teeth to fall out. On the damage to the hair, poor circulation from cigarette chemicals results in dull hair and could also lead to premature greying. As such, it is never too late to quit smoking as by quitting, you can get to enjoy the health benefits of breaking free from cigarette – for me it means less polluted and less smoky home.
When I get back to the my Kedap longhouse in Saratok I will kindly and respectfully advise elder brother Jon not to wait until cigarette price hits the twenty ringgit mark to quit – there will be a price hike next month, yesterday paper said.
Quitting is a matter of choice – there is no such thing as impossible. Make the choice before you grow a day older!
One could also look at the amount of money saved from quitting. Let’s say in a day you smoke two packets of cigarette costing RM15 per packet, it means you are spending RM30 to fulfil your crave for it daily. Multiply that by 30, the figure comes to RM900 monthly – this is the amount that goes into smokes, an amount that can buy you food items rich with nutrients and certainly better for your health. Have a nice day!
