HISTORY and irony were created in Jamaica on Monday July 15. It was the first day of the enactment of the new law that bans smoking in public places. History was created because it is a new law and demonstrates that we have come a long way from the days when every home had several ashtrays, a fact that youngsters under the age of 35 might not appreciate.
Could such a law be even contemplated, let alone enacted, a mere 20 years ago? My parents did not smoke but we had several ashtrays because just about all of my parents' friends and acquaintances were smokers. Even their children (including me) saw them as odd because they did not smoke.
"Daddy, why don't you smoke?" one of my sisters asked my father when we were children (about the year 1961 when I was seven going on eight). My father explained that smoking tobacco causes cancer and that he was saving his health to support the family. He also told us that certain extra privileges that we had he was able to afford out of his savings from not smoking.
But the fact that my parents did not smoke did not let them off the hook in terms of having to provide ashtrays at home for smokers. As an asthmatic myself, I do not know how much of my physical discomfort from childhood to this day was caused by second-hand smoke. Yet medical doctors said on the radio in the 1960s that there was no evidence that second-hand smoke ever did anyone harm.
Información publicada originalmente en:
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario