The lethal weed which kills my appetite

Have you ever been in a restaurant indulging your taste buds in some really delicious morsel, thinking that one of the pleasures in life is indulging in a plate of some well-prepared nosh?

I am sure you have, and while thinking you are close to heaven, breathing in the aroma of herbs and other goodies which have gone into preparing the dish you are salivating over, you are rudely deprived of this innocent pleasure when suddenly an acrid smell hits your nostrils and the all too familiar odour of somebody's cigarette smoke is wafting your way.

According to the anti-tobacco campaigning group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), information just released by the British government claims cigarettes contain: a paint stripper, a toilet cleaner, a lighter fuel, the chemical in mothballs, a poison used in gas chambers, a rocket fuel, and many other deadly poisons. No wonder cigarette smoke smells deadly.

Precious few in the hospitality industry even keep non-smoking zones, let alone smoke-free restaurants. I am not sure whether pressure is being exerted on the hospitality industry by the cigarette companies here, as is being done abroad.

A recent study released in the UK by ASH, "The tobacco industry, ETS and the hospitality trade. A chronology of tobacco industry obfuscation", by Naj Dehlavi and Amanda Sandford, gives some interesting insights in how far the industry will go to protect their interests.

The tobacco industry is blocking moves to make more public places smoke-free, ASH says. The study documents the tobacco industry's long-running campaign to discredit the science on passive smoking and oppose measures to ban smoking in the leisure sector. (www.ash.org.uk/html/workplace/html/hospitality_ets.html)

The report draws together industry documents which show how the companies built up alliances with the hospitality trade to lobby for self-regulation and oppose legislation to ban smoking in public places.

The companies also paid scientists to question the science on passive smoking and to maintain a public debate about the issue. This is what Ms Sandford, ASH research manager, had to say: "The industry documents reveal a cynical, shameful campaign to undermine legislation on smoke-free public places.

"While the cigarette makers stand to lose considerable sums of money as opportunities to light up become restricted, the same cannot be said for the hospitality trade which is more likely to attract custom."

Recent research released by the Trade Union Council (TUC) ['Smoke Screen' is published in the TUC's Hazards magazine. See: www.hazards.org/smoking] which coincides with the ASH study shows that smoking bans in restaurants and pubs are good for business, contrary to the views expressed by the hospitality trade associations.

The tobacco industry's argument that individuals have a 'right' to smoke is undermined when non-smokers are harmed. Moreover, restrictions or bans on smoking in indoor environments reduce the opportunity to smoke and help to make smoking less socially acceptable.

Smoking bans have a direct impact on tobacco consumption and negatively affect tobacco industry profits. Therefore, it is not surprising that the tobacco industry has embarked on campaigns to oppose smoke-free legislation and has refused to accept (at least publicly) the growing weight of evidence demonstrating the harmful effects of passive smoking.

Here as elsewhere non-smoking is rapidly becoming the norm in most workplaces, smoking is more common in places to which the public have access, particularly leisure and hospitality venues.

It seems amazing that after all the warnings from emminent doctors worldwide, tobacco, the only product that kills when used normally - 120,000 deaths per year in the UK, according to ASH, people, especially the young are still being taken in by the 'glamour' publicity.

Since 1980 approximately three million US women have died prematurely from smoking related neoplastic, cardiovascular, respiratory, and pediatric diseases, as well as cigarette-caused burns.

Each year during the 1990s US women lost an estimated 2.1 million years of life due to these smoking attributable premature deaths.

Lung cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death among US women; it surpassed breast cancer in 1987. About 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths among women who continue to smoke are attributable to smoking.

Also despite all the publicity which feature slim, attractive, athletic models the serious health consequences experienced by so many women who smoke belie the image.

The truth is that smoking can not only kill you but gives you bad skin, bad breath and can also effect your weight.

Recent research has shown that the skin ageing effects of smoking may be due to increased production of an enzyme that breaks down collagen in the skin. (Lahmann, C et al. Matrix metalloproteinase-1 and skin ageing in smokers. The Lancet 2001; 357: 935-6).

Collagen is the main structural protein of the skin which maintains skin elasticity. The more a person smokes, the greater the risk of premature wrinkling.

Smokers in their 40s often have as many facial wrinkles as non-smokers in their 60s. Smokers are more likely to store fat around the waist and upper torso, rather than around the hips.

This means smokers are more likely to have a higher waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) than non-smokers. A high WHR is associated with a much higher risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, gall bladder problems and (in women) cancer of the womb and breast.

So please, girls, be sensible quit the fags and get your boyfriends to do the same then you can stop putting me off my food.

Unwanted or unpaid work

Exploitation is something no-one will openly admit to, yet it seems that this unsavoury practice is alive and well on this island which prides itself of a strong Christian ethic.

The front page story in yesterday's Il-Gens uncovers the unscrupulous way illegal immigrants, mostly from Arab countries, are being abused in the construction industry. According to the story, these people are paid Lm10 for 12 hours' work a day.

Some of the projects are government-owned but subcontracted to private companies, says Il-Gens. The paper also confirmed that both the Employment and Training Corporation and the police have often received reports of these activities, but the police said that whenever they investigated they never found any illegal activity.

Yet, nine building contractors were arraigned in court on allegations, made by the ETC, that they employed foreign workers without a work permit, last Thursday. They were found guilty and fined between Lm50 and Lm500.

Let's face it, if they are only paying Lm10 for 12 hours hard labour, they are getting off cheap.

Construction industry sources recognise that the problem exists, and claim that not many Maltese workers are prepared to work in the sector and the industry is therefore 'forced' to use foreign workers.

If this is the case, it does seem rather odd that the police find nothing untoward when they investigate.

The current policy of the ETC is that it does not grant permits to foreigners for work in the construction industry before it ascertains that the work cannot be done by Maltese workers.

But it looks like the Maltese are not prepared to, rather than cannot, work in the construction industry. This seems to imply that the work is not paid the rate it should be.

Either that, or because contractors have to pay local workers a decent wage they 'pretend' they cannot get the workers in order to get cheap, and sometimes even free, labour.

This is not the first time we have heard of cases when the operator, wanting to be rid of an illegal employee, reports the worker anonymously.

The worker is deported and has no rights to contest that he is paid the hard-earned money he worked for.

Apparently, the ETC are trying to solve the problem by having an open day in June for all Maltese nationals interested in working in the industry.

So what will happen if not enough Maltese show interest? Will the ETC be giving permits to these exploited people and ensure they get proper wages and conditions? After all that would be the Christian way to behave.