Sunday, November 02, 2008

No Smoking in Public and Private places


Anbumani Ramadoss brought a new policy from Oct 2nd, 2008, that nobody should smoke in public and private places. Those who want to smoke, has to smoke at their house or on roads. Nobody is allowed to even smoke in their offices.

Ramadoss is notorious for bringing policies which appear as good, but actually very bad.

My personal experience is, in the last couple of years, I was never worried about passive smoking. I was almost never effected by passive smoking. But, in the last one month, I was more effected by passive smoking.

Till Oct 1st, My company and other companies in the surrounding area used to provide smoking areas in the office. Most of the time, Non-smokers never bother about going to that side. So, almost nobody effected by passive smoking.

With the new rule, all the companies removed the smoking areas, and mentioned that, entire office is no-smoking area. Those whoever wants to smoke, they have to go out and smoke on the road. Everyday, I walk from auto stand to my office gate in the morning, and from office gate to auto stand in the evening. While walking, I see many people who smoke on the road, and I am effected by passive smoking because of that. Previously, all of them used to smoke in the smoking area in their respective companies. Because of this stupid rule, they are smoking on the roads, and the pedestrians are effected by that.

The smoking is not allowed in small hotels. In big restaurants, it is allowed only if the restaurant provides a special smoking area. But, many small restaurants do not follow any rules. So, they allow smoking. For the last one month, smoking in small restaurants has increased, because, there are restrictions in all the companies, and in many private places. So, smokers are smoking in the small hotels. Because of this also, I am more effected by passive smoking.

At the end, people like me are more effected by this stupid rule.

If they want to change smokers, then they should do it in such a way that, non-smokers are not effected at all. I seriously doubt, whether Ramadoss can ever imagine/come up/approve one good idea/policy/rule in his life.

2 comments:

  1. Well the way they implement may not be right but the intent should be appreciated. I don't think it would be possible without effecting non-smokers. When they put bleach in drinking water everyone drinks it. We should be supportive in helping the smokers quit. Remember its an addiction, they get depressed if they don't smoke and may get suicidal tendencies too. A sudden change is not good for them, it should be gradual.

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  2. I agree that the intent is good. But, when they come up with rules/policies as implementation of the intent, they are doing mistakes.

    I don't think it would be possible without effecting non-smokers.

    If they don't have any idea about changing without effecting non-smokers, then they should keep quiet. Why should I suffer just because there is one person around me, who does not care about his health? I don't think there is anyone in India who does not know that smoking is not good for health. Why should government make people like me suffer, to save the people who do not stop eventhough they know it is bad for themselves?

    When they put bleach in drinking water everyone drinks it.

    I cannot understand the logic here. If the drinking water is not in a good condition, then putting bleach would make it improve. If they put bleach, then everyone would drink better water. If they don't put, everyone would drink contaminated water. How does it relate to the present discussion?

    We should be supportive in helping the smokers quit.

    I always support helping smokers quit. For that, they have to provide separate smoking areas. Till Oct 1st, my company used to provide that, and every smoker had to go there to smoke. But, from Oct 2nd onwards, those smoking areas are removed, and they are smoking on the roads, and small hotels. Because of that, I am getting effected.

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