Get Smokey

There732;s nothing quite as insidious as a cigarette break 8212; it8217;s the make or break time in office relationships, and you think it8217;s the ultimate boredom-buster.

There8217;s nothing quite as insidious as a cigarette break 8212; it8217;s the make or break time in office relationships, and you think it8217;s the ultimate boredom-buster. You think you need it and can8217;t quite picture life without it. But it8217;s not entirely your fault 8212; the addiction is as much physical as it is psychological.

It8217;s not just nicotine packing the killer punch in your high-end cigarettes. Lighting up creates up to 4,000 chemicals, many of which are known carcinogens. My personal favourite is polonium. Yes, polonium, that same radioactive substance which was suspected to have been used to kill former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

So,despite all this, why are people willing to put themselves on life8217;s slow burner? What I8217;ve heard most often is 8220;time-pass8221;, that you smoke when you8217;re bored 8212; that it8217;s a great ice-breaker. No doubt, smoking is the great social enabler. How many conversations have been struck up with that first match? Conversations that meander past the first few drags, end in a companiable silence, broken only by semi-satisfied grunts 8212; that you know the other person is there, but you8217;re more taken with your intimate relationship with your cigarette.

You can romanticise smoking 8212; it8217;s been done forever, from old Hollywood classics to the Marlboro Men, to singers/dancers/actors, you name it. Each is a hook that draws people in. Especially kids 8212; so much smarter than we8217;d like to believe but still open to suggestion. Cigarettes have been designed, pumped full of stuff, to become as addictive as cocaine. To me that8217;s not cool. Each cigarette, they say, is like five minutes of your life. Now don8217;t tell me that8217;s a fair price for dealing with boredom.

Apart from a move to label packets with graphic pictures to deter smokers and fine people who dare to light up while driving and that whole eyewash of putting up signs that cigarettes won8217;t be sold to minors, we have no clue how to deal with it. These are largely pretend rules.

I8217;m not saying we need the state to play Big Brother, but we desperately need to figure out a way to make smoking uncool. Here are my two bits 8212; instead of mocking the zeal of the newly-converted reformed smoker, harness it. Each one, reach one. I8217;ve only reached three so far but then each puff, or lack thereof, counts.