Rewards for Not Smoking

Smoking. It’s not just a slow suicide. It’s also a form of slow and painful murder.

Smoking by pregnant mothers leads to low birth weight babies. Smoking by new mothers lowers the quality of breast milk. Children exposed to second hand smoke experience higher incidence of asthma, allergies, broncitis and ear infections. And, then there is the risk of lung, throat, tongue and other cancers.

Where I live in Germany, I am still surprised by the number of people who sit down in public places near pregnant women and children and light up a cigarette. Pregnant women and small children are visible victims. There is no visual protection to shield people with heart and lung problems from the inconsiderate smokers of this world.

While the temptation to think of smokers as pure idiots is tempting, addiction is more complicated than a simple judgement. Among the smokers and former smokers in my family, I’ve listened to them perform feats of logical gymnastics to justify how their smoking is not as unhealthy, unclean or expensive as the habits of other people.

“We only smoke in the basement with the window open,” is a common qualifier.

“I only smoke light cigarettes,” is another. As if the cigarettes were the tabacco eqivalent of Diet Coke.

Among mothers, the most common justification is this: “Smoking is the only thing I have that is still all mine.”

As if health and dignity count for nothing.

What smoking mothers need to know is this:

Every time a mother lights up a cigarette, she is showing a remarkable disregard for herself and her family. Smoking is a display of a callous disregard for health and life.

Every time a mother lights up, she is telling her children, both born and unborn, that she cares more about cigarettes than she does about them.

Yes, that is how the rest of the world sees you and our view is based on medical evidence. Your view is based on a chemical addiction, nothing more. If you need a doctor’s help to deal with addiction, get yourself to the doctor now.

Call it tough love.Tough love, though, is not the approach the Scottish town of Tayside in Dundee is taking. In low-income areas where the smoking rate among pregnant mothers is almost 50%, the town is offering women incentives to stay off the death sticks until their children are three months old, reported the Scotsman.

• Smokers will receive vouchers to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, free access to leisure centres, creche facilities, relaxation classes and cinema tickets provided they stay off the cigarettes during their pregnancy.
• Under the £100,000 scheme incentives will also be offered for up to three months after they give birth.
• To qualify for the payments, the expectant mothers will have to prove they are staying smoke-free and will have to pass weekly breath tests for carbon monoxide levels in their lungs.

Can this exchange of entertainment for cigarettes succeed? Somehow, I don’t think a trip to the movies is going to help pregnant women give up smoking. Especially since most women could afford to go to the movies if they gave up smoking.

Are you a smoking mother or expectant mother? Are you outraged and offended that I have taken this tone with you? Good. Someone had better be honest with you before you die of lung cancer and make your poor kid an orphan.