Smoke gets up my nose rather than in my eyes. I can already feel smokers’ hackles rising and thinking here goes another sanctimonious article and it’s not even about pot. The controversy created by the recent revival of the EU campaign against smoking was not surprising.

Non-smokers are rightly incensed at having to put up with second-hand smoke, while smokers think them as either intolerant or ultra sensitive and worse just plain killjoys.

“Live and let live” is a common but inappropriate phrase used by smokers. Inapt because smoking endangers life for both the passive and actual smoker.

It is said that previous smokers are more intolerant of smoke than people who have never smoked and it’s certainly true with me, but I am no curmudgeon, it is not that I now just dislike cigarette smoke, I have become allergic to it.

I get a sneezing fit if neighbours smoke on their balcony and it wafts up and in to my kitchen. At the time of year when one enjoys having open windows and balcony doors, before the heat kicks in, I have to go round shutting myself in to stop the sniffling.

It’s not hay fever I get it’s weed fever. I suppose it’s all grass really. Yes, I know the former is actually due to pollen, but where does that come from! Ironically, some smokers go out on their balconies because they either don’t like smoke in the house, or live with others that don’t.

Even in my smoking days, I used to hate the stink of tobacco and chemical residue in my clothes and hair after a night out and would shower as soon as I got in. Besides, ever since I first got pregnant, smoking in the house was not an option. It had also stopped me smoking until my son was much older. Then I only kept a pack of ten (I always wondered why one could never get a 10-pack here) in my office drawer, which would last at least a week.

I was horrified to read that even though 95 per cent of Maltese people are careful not to light up if the passenger is a pregnant woman, we have the third highest rate of smokers in Europe who puff away in their car in the company of children. Surely they must realise that if smoking can harm a foetus, it also harms children growing up.

I remember having to chase my mother-in-law out into the garden for her breakfast smoke, when visiting, which did not exactly endear me to her. Now, I understand that I am one of the lucky ones who could give up the weed without too much difficulty and some are well and truly hooked.

However, there are now many aids to overcome the urge. It was so encouraging to see that our own John Dalli, the Commissioner responsible for the EU’s Health and Consumer Policy is more than doing his bit. Launching this year’s anti-tobacco campaign in Brussels, he said the Commission would be reviewing its existing legislation on tobacco products in order to continue to cut consumption.

Smoking, he pointed out, killed some 650,000 people in the EU every year. A further 13 million people in the EU suffer from serious diseases caused by smoking. Second-hand smoke causes 79,000 deaths a year in the EU.

Yet, there are still people who think it is a myth that smoking and passive smoking pose a serious health risk. This is what some ‘enlightened’ people had to say: “Smoking does not cause lung cancer and the only lungs that are black are those of lung cancer sufferers (non-smokers get it as well). Teeth do not fall out and smoking does not cause throat cancer. That rubbish that is churned out daily by so-called ‘scientists’ that are paid by the drug companies in order to make billions on nicotine replacement therapy, ” said one.

And another: “As it is well known that so called ‘second hand smoke’ is not in the least bit hazardous to health (Nobody has ever died or been harmed by it as it does not exist). Normal intelligent people know that there are more toxins in ordinary tap water and everyday products. I suggest that anti smokers just do not like the idea of people actually enjoying something that they do not.”

There was only one commentator (that I saw) online who tried to correct such ignorant misinformation: “As a researcher in respiratory disease − second-hand smoke exists and so do the harmful effects it causes.”

Tobacco smoke affects me so badly that I will walk into the road rather then run the smoke gauntlet on pavements or outside cafés and bars. “The non-smoking ban is now becoming a farce. Try having a drink or a meal on tables outside a bar or restaurant. This is now a privileged area for smokers,” said another commentator.

I will avoid a shop if it means entering it via one or more of the shop assistants smoking on the doorstep. I am just grateful that my clubbing days are well and truly over, since it seems that despite the eight-year-old ban, on smoking inside establishments, infringements are rampant.

This is one of many similar comments online; “They keep talking about enforcing laws and fines, however they far from do it. As a youth I go to Paceville every weekend, returning back home stinking of smoke. Everyone in the club will be smoking, including the barmen, DJs and even owners... while the police are outside...”

It is not just Paceville either, “All one has to do is just peep into any local band club, political club or snack bar and find out what a big farce the smoking ban enforcement is. I have seen this happening even with police officers around. Simply no respect for anyone,” said another.

“I just cannot find a bar in St. Joseph High Road, Hamrun, which respects the non-smoking rule. I have to drive all the way to the Lija Football Club bar, in order to be able to have a smoke-free drink. But it’s worth it,” said another and apparently the situation is as bad in Gharghur. But at least it is good to hear that the Lija football club is observing the ban.

Maybe all our football clubs can follow Barcelona’s FC example.

Two years ago, FC Barcelona launched the “Barça sense fum” (A smoke-free Barça) campaign, which resulted in all the areas of the club becoming healthy no-smoking zones.

Then on the eve of the Euro 2012 football tournament, it announced its co-operation with the “Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable” campaign in the fight against smoking. Barça and the European Commission are joining forces to achieve the common goal to help European citizens get rid of their addiction.

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