Tobackoff #10: No Butts

On hearing that a very old friend had undergone a sudden angioplasty while on  a visit to the UK to drop his son to his new school, I gave him a call to inquire after his health. We spoke the way old friends do; and, during the course of the reminiscence, he admitted ruefully, “We really shouldn’t have started smoking. Barring that, it’s been a sensible life.”

I recently met up with another old friend at a popular mall, where we had to climb up a dozen steps to reach the eatery. My friend, an ex-smoker of several years, made very heavy weather of it, and arrived at the top, wheezing, flushed and panting. “Are you all right?” I asked; “I’m fine,” he said, “Just that taking up smoking 30 years ago wasn’t such a good idea”.

These two incidents pretty much sum up what I’m trying to say. Smoking isn’t a sensible thing to do – in fact, it’s a really bad idea. So should you choose to smoke, or to continue smoking, you’ll need to stop to consider the fact that, while you might not actually die of it, you’re doing yourself permanent, irreversible damage.

Smoking at the workplace has its own issues – you will need to travel a long distance for that puff; your non-smoking bosses will count the number of minutes you’re away smoking; your after-shave (or your perfume) will be enhanced by the omnipresent waft of tobacco; and you may actually lose out on opportunities as a result of all or some of these.

Smoking isn’t a weight-loss tool, because age will eventually swamp metabolism; it isn’t a style statement, particularly after the Marlboro man got cancer; it isn’t a stress-buster, because it gives you a lot more stress later on; and neither is it “cool”, because most of the developed world has virtually outlawed it.

So, if you’re a smoker - on this World No Smoking Day, take a few minutes to think about it.