Anti-tobacco hysteria kills free choice

Strange times! When folks we hardly know get to rule our lives, well, they do. Every new regime eagerly enacts more laws while rarely repealing old ones. In the bargain, those with delegated authority inevitably stack on more regulations, more ordinances, more rules, and more bylaws too. And to top it off, various lobby groups push for legislation suiting their own ideological slant or self-interest. As the years roll on, and more and more rights are extinguished, more personal liberties trashed, little by little we become surrogates for the worldviews of others.

Speaking of others, they’ve surfaced in Rodrigues. Of late, anti-tobacco lobbyists are pressing for a blanket ban on all tobacco-growing on the island. Or more precisely, they want a right possessed and exercised by people throughout recorded human history, taken away from hand-to-mouth dirt farmers. Lobbyists reckon tobacco damages health, and growing it on their doorstep only encourages Rodriguans to smoke. Another contention is that contact with wet tobacco causes dermal absorption of nicotine, leading to nausea, malaise, dizziness, abdominal cramps, respiratory complications and cardiac problems. What's more, citing overseas studies, lobbyists claim that organophosphate based pesticides used in tobacco cultivation trigger depression and suicide in those exposed to them.

Let’s see. More often than not, heavy long-term smoking kills. No fancy arguments from me. It’s bad. It’s 2008. We know. What, did any of the Rodriguan clan say smoking was good for them? Hmm. Incidentally, heavy long-term consumption of junk food, salt, or grog brings on the eternal cold too. Will our crusading idéologues also picket fast-food outlets and rally to outlaw rum, phoenix beer, and salt?

Let’s zoom in on a few realities. Once harvested, tobacco is dried and cured, then sold and shipped to Mauritius. As there are no tobacco factories in Rodrigues, all cigarettes must be imported. Not exactly on our doorstep, is it? Granted, a handful of older Rodriguans still smoke chopped-up dried tobacco leaves, locally known as gro taba. But besides its choking, harsh aftertaste, gro taba is looked upon as the smoke of the underclass and, for that reason, would-be movers-and-shakers and young go-getters just don’t go near the stuff. Hardly tobacco's poster child! At any rate, living next to a brewery does not an alcoholic make.

The assertion that wet tobacco and its pesticides make growers sick, sad and suicidal draws an incredibly long bow. To make ends meet, subsistence farmers have been planting tobacco on small plots of arid land in the villages – without any drama – for generations. Typically, natural fertilizers obtained free or on the cheap are used, but occasionally chemical fertilizers are applied. It is true that tobacco and tomato pesticides contain organophosphate based compounds, which once exposed to air, soil and sunlight degrade rapidly. While it’s not sarin nerve gas, any pesticide, like battery acid or rat poison serves a specific purpose, and most sensible people instinctively know not to drink it. Organophosphate compounds are also found in insecticides, gearboxes, herbicides, paint thinners, cement mix and nail polish removers. In short, they are widely used domestically and industrially.