"Every time the telephone in my office rang, I lit a cigarette. How many times do you think my telephone rang during the course of a working day? That equals the number of cigarettes I used to smoke and at the same time exposed my colleagues to the dangers of passive smoking."

These are the words spoken by Rukmini, who started smoking when she was in grade 7 (std 5). She started this unhealthy habit because she wanted to experiment and have some fun. Little did she know that years later she would become very sick and face the possibility of tuberculosis (TB), a disease exasperated by smoking.

Rukmini suffered from severe bronchitis when she decided to quit smoking. Today she has been a reformed smoker for more than 4 years. " I realised the significant value of my health and that of my family", she said. Her decision to change her lifestyle resulted in her children becoming active sports enthusiasts and who never took to smoking.

Rukmini supports the legislation on smoking in the workplace and is very grateful for the implementation of the smoking policy. She acknowledges that the smoking regulation limits the number of cigarettes that employees can smoke at work. It is now an effort for employees to enjoy a cigarette at work. For this reason some of them might decide to kick the habit.

Her advice to smokers is to be strong and stop now. "Find yourself a good enough reason to motivate you to stop smoking. If your health is not important enough, think of all the money you could save in one year. I could have saved approximately R 4 500,00 per year multiplied by the number of years I have smoked a packet a day and even more over week-ends".

Quit Line: (011) 720-3145

Inquiries: Heidi Bartis, Deputy Director: Communication
Tel: 021 483 3869