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We Banned Smoking in Restaurants But Made It More Appealing in High Schools
The way Romanian high schools are set up can favor or dissuade smoking.
I was walking with my good friend Adriana the other day, telling her about an uncle of mine. A lifetime of smoking affected the veins in his legs to the point where he had trouble walking even short distances, from his home to a few houses down the street. The discussion of harmful effects allowed Adriana to share her husband’s and teenage son’s experiences with me.
Her husband, Cosmin, used to work in an office where four other guys smoked all day long. There’s been a law against that in Romania since 2016, when smoking was banned in closed public places, including restaurants and workplaces.
But the news hadn’t reached his office. And it didn’t seem like Cosmin could do much besides get sick from the daily smoke at work.
Nicotine, if you’re a smoker or inhale secondhand smoke, makes you ill even before it ruins your blood vessels or gives you cancer. You can get high blood pressure, headaches, dizziness, and nausea, among other maladies. Cosmin was constantly nauseated. It got so bad that after several painful months, he had to quit his job.
