A Note to Irresponsible Smokers

June 9, 2009. On my way to work, I boarded an ordinary bus bound south. I sat near the end, right beside the window to catch a glimpse of the train construction on EDSA. I was enjoying the music fed through my ears but I noticed that there was a familiar scent but quite odd in that place on the road. I surely know it wasn't the fumes from a smoke-belching diesel engine nor the dusty musk of EDSA traffic.

I turned to my back, saw a man looking out of the window and realized what the whiff was. Yeah, friends, he was smoking inside the bus right beside the window. I tried to restlessly look back to him, like saying "Manong, pwedeng paki-patay na yan..." When the wind blew towards us, I can smell the fumes of his yosi. Well, the manong didn't quite understand my message for maybe he was quite occupied with other things or just enjoying the ride and the ciggy.

June 10, 2009. I was on my way home past 12MN from work. Waiting inside the jeep bound to our town proper, I was quietly sitting on the innermost part of the jeep, right behind the front passenger area. Quite tired and exhausted from the eight-hour duty, I needed some breathing space to relax and hopefully end my day peacefully.

But one of my life's horrors came and sat down on the front passenger seat. A teenager, maybe a high schooler's age, was trying to finish fuming on the jeep to secure a seat. She, and not a he, finished up the cigar with me coughing up on her fumes.

In that same jeepney, another passenger was smoking, maybe to pass time waiting for the jeep to go. After finishing his yosi, he just threw away the cigarrette butt outside the jeep entrance onto the murky puddle on the road.

All these things reflect a majority of Filipino smokers. Smoking in public transport shows lack of etiquette and respect towards other passengers. Studies have shown that passive smoking, or inhaling secondhand smoke is more dangerous compared to active smoking. A non-smoker inhaling cigarette smoke may increase the risks of having lung cancer by 20-30% (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Second-hand+smoking). Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) also noted that around 75,000 Filipinos die of smoking-related ailments such as pulmonary and heart diseases.

Throwing away cigarette butts anywhere is also dangerous to our health and to our environment. EcoWaste Coalition, an environmental group notes that discarded cigarette butts are "the most littered toxic waste in the country". Though small and sometimes unnoticeable, these are non-biodegradable waste and it would take up to 25 years to break these waste down. (Lopez). Elsie Brandes-de Veyra highlights “Butts may look small but with the Filipinos’ addiction to cigarette and tobacco and the quantity of carelessly thrown butts in the environment, these items can pose real toxic threats to humans and wildlife.”

Our health officials has reminded us of cleaning-up our areas to prevent the spread of dengue fever. As I remember, one health official even noted that a single candy wrapper with stagnant water can be a breeding place for mosquitos. The cigarette butt's just the same as the candy wrapper. These waste may be small but when millions of road users throw such waste around the Metro, piles of cigarette butts and candy wrappers may pose threatening environmental misfortunes.

I don't want to preach something here. I just hope that smokers may be responsible enough to throw away their butts on proper bins and cans. I also wish that they would think not only of their own health but of other's healths and Mother Earth's fitness as well.

References:

• Lopez, Allison. "Cigarette butts deadly to environment". Philippine Daily Inquirer. ttp://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080306-123214/Cigarette-butts-deadly-to-environment. First Posted 22:11:00 03/06/2008. Accessed: June 10, 2009.
• "Second Hand Smoking". The Free Dictionary. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Second-hand+smoking. Accessed: June 10, 2009.