In the USA, I spent my
childhood enveloped in a cloud of cigarette smoke. All the adults in the
family, except my grandfather, were nicotine addicts. My father smoked Newports;
my mother smoked Larks; and my grandmother smoked Camels. A filter was supposed
to make cigarettes safe and remove all of the crap. It did not.
Back in the 1950s,
however, no one was aware that smoking, besides being more addictive than
heroin, turned one’s lungs black. My suspicions were confirmed many years later
when two of my children, who studied medicine, began opening cadavers and told
me that the lungs of smokers always resembled two chunks of coal. Fortunately,
neither I nor my siblings followed in the family tradition. None of us ever
smoked.
I have always hated
smoking even when it was not fashionable to do so. I never enjoyed having smoke
blown in my face. However, if I complained, I was being overly sensitive. God
forbid that I should object to inhaling someone else’s smoke loaded with over
4000 noxious chemicals.
Fifty years ago in
Spain, smoking was regarded as a time-honored custom. For young men, it was a
rite of passage. After they had finished their compulsory military service,
they were allowed to smoke in front of their father because they had at last
entered the sacred portal of Manhood. When women smoked, they were rebelling
against tradition. Girls who lit up cigarettes were implicitly saying that
times had changed, and that they no longer wished to become domestic slaves
like their mothers. They were regarded as progressive, sexy, and maybe a little
‘fast’.
When I arrived in Spain
in the late 1960s, I was astonished by the number of smokers. Not only did
people smoke in bars, restaurants, and movie theaters, they also smoked in
university classrooms. Those of us who were non-smokers were thus condemned to
look at the blackboard (and life in general) through a pervasive cloud of
second-hand smoke.
However, I finally
became tired of being bullied by smokers when I quite logically objected to
their smoking in the non-smoking areas of trains, buses, restaurants, and
planes. More than anything I had difficulty understanding why they persisted in
the belief that their smoking could not possibly bother others, simply because
it did not bother them.
My activity as a
Smoking Vigilante officially began in the 1980s when I started teaching at the
university. On the first day of class, I announced that smoking was prohibited.
This caused a great uproar, especially since the students were allowed to smoke
in all their other classes. One young man asked me what would happen if he
smoked anyway, and I told him that the answer was simple…. he would fail the
course. “But you can’t do that!” he spluttered. I limited myself to replying
with raised eyebrows accompanied by my most malevolent smile.
He knew that since I
had tenure, I could do anything that I wished. The university would only consider
firing me if I brought an assault rifle to class and massacred 10 students or
more. Consequently, he wisely decided not to smoke that year. In fact, no one
has ever smoked in any of my classes or exams.
As years passed, Spain finally
began to wise up. Largely thanks to the European Union, Spaniards began to realize
that smoking just might not be good for their health. Despite a few protest
marches carried out by indignant groups
of diehard smokers, smoking was at last banned, first at the workplace, then in
public transportation, and finally in bars and restaurants. However, this only
occurred when the cost of treating smoking-related diseases exceeded the
revenues from tobacco products.
By that time, my mother
had been living in Spain for three years. After 40 years of smoking, she finally
decided to stop. I remember that in February 1994 she gave me this good news as
a birthday present. Unfortunately, two weeks afterward, she was diagnosed with
incurable lung cancer and died six months after quitting the habit.
Now, in Times of
Coronavirus, smoking (and even vaping) has again come to the forefront. Smokers
are once more feeling unjustly persecuted. In De-escalation Phase 1, bars and
restaurants can only serve customers outside on terraces. Previously, these
outdoor tables had always been the privileged domain of smokers since
non-smokers had the option of sitting at a table inside, where smoking was
prohibited. However, now non-smokers and smokers are forced to mix, and the
battle is on once again.
It goes without saying
that as a fervent Smoking Vigilante, I am biased in favor of non-smokers. However,
even with a two-meter separation between tables, coronavirus smoke is
dangerous. Evidently, everyone must take off masks to drink beer or sip wine.
Masks must also be removed to smoke. As we all know, smoking involves a
succession of hand movements that involve face and lip touching, which is an
excellent way to spread Covid-19 to oneself and to others.
When smoke is exhaled
by an infected person, the virus is projected farther than it would ordinarily
go (over two meters). The fact that the coronavirus is transported in smoke (or
vapor) means that it remains suspended in the air for a longer time and lingers
there for others to breathe.
Nevertheless, in Times
of Coronavirus, smokers also have their counter-arguments. It has been claimed
that nicotine prevents Covid-19. So far, all of the data supporting this
assertion comes from one study conducted at a Paris hospital in April. According
to this research, smokers are statistically less likely to be admitted for
treatment for Covid-19. The hypothesis is that nicotine could protect smokers
from the virus.
This would be promising
if it were not for that the fact that other researchers in the USA and Wales
have found that the results of the Paris study are flawed because of statistical
miscalculation and sampling error, along with poor rates of screening and the incomplete
documentation of smoking history. Another major concern is that the lead author
of this study had previously accepted $220,000 from the Council for Tobacco
Research and has collaborated with R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris.
So the jury is still
out. More studies are obviously needed to confirm this finding. Nevertheless, even
if nicotine does indeed afford protection against Covid-19, smokers still lose
out since the therapeutic nicotine would have to be administered in the form of
(smoke-free) patches, not in the form of cigarettes.
Even the French (tobacco-funded)
research agrees that the potentially positive impact of nicotine on the virus
is outweighed by the injury produced by the act of smoking, which damages the
lungs and lining of airways. It seems that once smokers are infected with Covid-19,
they are at a much greater risk of negative outcomes. This has been confirmed
by all research to date. The fact that second-hand smoke can infect others is
also irrefutable.
Unfortunately, there is
often a tendency for people to ignore science when it does not agree with what
they wish to hear. In the war zone of Spanish bars and restaurants, that is
certainly the case. The scene is thus set for smokers and non-smokers to clash.
More than a few of these conflicts have already occurred. The pandemic seems to
bring out both the best and worst in people.
Despite my status as a
confirmed Smoking Vigilante, I am convinced that this is a battle not worth
fighting, especially since Phase 2 is only ten days away. Given that I have no
imperative need to go to a bar, it is safer to stay at home. As Sun Tzu once
wisely said, “If a battle cannot be won, do not fight it.”
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