smokers in the children's playground

I have tried hard to keep this blog light hearted and humorous. But this is one really serious issue and needs to be dealt with.

When I came back home yesterday, granma had a story. Anjali went to the children's playground and enjoyed herself. But she had picked up a cigarette butt and was about to eat it. But luckily, granma intervened in time and threw away the butt.

"There are lots of children in the playground" said granma "and Anjali's friend is another kid just a month older than Anjali. her maid brings her and takes care of her. But these children have so many limbs and move like lightning, that sometimes it is very hard to prevent them from eating stuff"

Husband and I are mostly ok with Anjali eating stuff, even more ok than granma. But we draw the line at batteries and cigarette butts.

But how did that offending item get on the playground? Maybe the wind blew it. Maybe it apparated into the playground. Maybe there is a cigarette manufacturing factory concealed under the carpet of the playground...

The mystery, however, was solved when I was bringing Tutu back from granma's house. A group of kids, no more than 14 or 15 years old, were sitting in the playground, smoking. There were more kids sitting in the tunnels that the children play in, and smoking there.

I got so angry that I told them off and asked them, quite politely, considering how angry I was, to take their cigarettes somewhere else.

Why I am putting this in the blog is because I know there are people out there reading this blog. If you see anyone smoking near or in a kids' playground, please tell them off. For one thing, it is dangerous to the kids to handle and eat cigarette butts. For another thing, the smoke and ash stick to the surface of the play things. Kids put their hands there and then put their hands in their mouths.

So please help in this. babies dont know what they are eating. Teenagers need to be taught that they are responsible, not just for themselves, but for others too.

Here is the children's playground smoking law in Queensland. they ought to have this in Singapore too.

Children's playground equipment
Passive smoking can have significant health effects on children. The breathing in of tobacco smoke by non-smokers can lead to harmful health effects in the unborn child, and middle ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma and other chest conditions in children. It is also linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

In 1999-2001 in Queensland, exposure to passive smoking caused an estimated 21 deaths per year in children aged 0-4 years.

To further protect children from the harmful effects of exposure to passive smoking, the Queensland Government has introduced new smoking bans around children’s playground equipment.

Since 1 January 2005, smoking is illegal within 10 metres of children’s outdoor playground equipment situated at a place that is ordinarily open to the public.