31st May 2007 was World No Tobacco Day. The 2007 theme was Smoke-Free Environment. I didn't even realise that yesterday was World No Tobacco Day. :P
Yesterday I spent the evening with my family at a buffet at this hotel in KL. Most air-conditioned "high class" eateries in Petaling Jaya / Kuala Lumpur are divided into two sections - smoking and non-smoking; this hotel not being the exception. We were seated at the non-smoking section, with the buffet tables dividing the smoking from the non-smoking sections.
I often wonder about this division concept: the same air is distributed in a fixed space, and tobacco smoke particles also distribute themselves in that fixed space - this is plain chemistry. What is there to stipulate that if there are non-smoking and smoking sections, the tobacco smoke particles are confined in the smoking section?
My sentiments are echoed by the World Health Organisation.
After dinner, we waited at the hotel foyer while my father went to get the car. To my surprise, the hotel foyer was also a "designated smoking section"; people were sitting down having a good smoke. I didn't look around to see if there was a No Smoking sign put up in the foyer, though. Don't tell me that the hotel foyer was also divided into smoking and non-smoking sections? If so, then why were all the chairs placed in the smoking section? Is it assumed that because non-smokers are healthier, there is no need for them to sit down?
As an aside, have a look at the list of activities to be organised by several countries around the world in conjunction with World No Tobacco Day 2007 - Malaysia is not listed as one of those countries.
It's high time that we Malaysians say "Tak Nak" to smoking and push for smoke-free environments. Enough has been said. Let's do something about it. Not just on World Tobacco Day. Every day.
