Without effective enforcement, no-smoking zones mean nothing

I AM 100% behind the proposals of the Health Ministry to label each cigarette stick a “health hazard” and to expand no-smoking zones.

However, there’s a need to address the issue of enforcement as it is not uncommon to see smokers happily puffing away in gazetted no-smoking zones — sometimes right next to the no-smoking sign and even in hospital premises!

Without proper and consistent enforcement, it does not matter if the whole country is a no-smoking zone because smokers will smoke whenever and wherever they like and make a mockery of the good intentions of the Health Ministry.

Some may talk about the smoker’s “rights”. In my line of work, I often encounter spouses and family members of smokers who come in with an asthmatic attack (sometimes life-threatening) precipitated by passive smoking.

When you see a pregnant woman struggling to breathe, with her life and that of her unborn child on the brink of death because her husband could not or would not stop smoking, you may wonder why people keep talking about a smoker’s rights.

Would anyone say it is the right of a factory owner to dump toxic waste into rivers?

As for selling cigarettes in plain packaging without brand colours, just ask any smoker on the street and you’ll find that many already get their cigarettes in plain, unbranded boxes, some as cheaply as RM2 to RM4 for 10 sticks.

As I’m whole-heartedly behind any proposal by the Government to reduce smoking, I hope it’s not all just talk with no action. ANTI-SMOKING Kuching