'My wife says I am suicidal because I smoke'

'My wife says I am suicidal because I smoke'

Although the national antismoking campaign has been underway for
over five years, not all government and local administration
offices have been declared nonsmoking areas due to the absence of
bylaws to implement antitobacco regulations. In observance of
World No Tobacco Day on May 31, The Jakarta Post asked a few
residents what they thought about smoking.

Suhaimi, 36, is a shop attendant at Kalibata shopping mall,
South Jakarta. He lives on Jl. Dewi Sartika, East Jakarta:

I have smoked for the past 14 years. It's a habit that is hard
to kick. My wife is mad at me for "polluting the house" -- those
are her words exactly. She can't stand the smell of cigarette
smoke. She describes the way that I smoke as the gesture of a
suicidal man.

I know my habit puts my health and others' at risk. I'm trying
to stop. Not just because my cigarette money is coming out of the
family budget; our son has asthma.

Now I smoke only after meals and in open places. I also make
sure that there are no children around when I smoke.

If the government wants to ban people from smoking in public,
then it should provide smokers with someplace to smoke, don't you
think?

Boby, 27, is a distillation engineer for a beverage company in
Bekasi. He lives with his family in Pulo subdistrict, South
Jakarta:

Everyone should quit. The government should ban smoking in
public places because it has long-term affects on health, and not
just the smoker's. The government must also control the tobacco
industry.

I'm saying this out of experience.

I quit smoking about eight months ago after realizing that I
had been suffering various ailments -- including nausea and high
blood pressure -- due to smoking. Well, fortunately, I have not
been diagnosed with cancer.

The difficult part of quitting is watching your friends smoke.
You have to have willpower. Just keep telling yourself that you
want to stay healthy.

-- The Jakarta Post