{"id":101587,"date":"2020-04-26T15:43:13","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T22:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101587"},"modified":"2020-04-26T15:43:13","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T22:43:13","slug":"time-to-ban-public-spitting-betel-chew-spitting-especially-to-stop-the-spread-of-corono-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/26\/time-to-ban-public-spitting-betel-chew-spitting-especially-to-stop-the-spread-of-corono-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to ban public spitting\/betel chew spitting \u2013 Especially, to stop the spread of Corono Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

General Spitting and expectorate (eg. phlegm, mucus)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

People do not care about spitting\nin public places.  They have become accustomed\nto it. They will continue to do it freely and openly, without fear.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is very bad for sanitary and health reasons. Their actions cause environmental pollution\/public\nnuisance.  It is very bad for tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the Corono\nPandemic, it is of paramount importance that public spitting is made illegal.<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who continue to spit\npublicly should be fined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(<\/em>In Arizona, USA spitting on sidewalks or\nin public buildings could bring a $500 fine<\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spitting\nout Betel chew <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last\n30 years or so a large number of people gave up cigarette smoking. Unfortunately,\nmany of them  instead took up betel chewing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They chew\nbetel leaves with areconuts, tobacco and lime. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\nincredible that a very large number of young people have taken up this bad\nhabit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betel\nchewing in big cities\/towns is largely prevalent among people of \u2018lower social\nstrata\u2019. They are mostly heavy duty labourers. These are people who do hard physical\nwork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betel\nchewing operates as a stimulus.  It keeps\npeople awake. Thus, it is ideal for heavy vehicle\/bus drivers, three-wheeler\ndrivers and bus conductors. They labour for many hours a day. One could often\nsee them spitting out betel chew in to public from inside their vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombo\nstreets are littered full of these red spills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Literally,\nthey are everywhere on our roads and sidewalks. During dry seasons, they last\nfor long times. Only rains would wash them away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they have no other choice, people are compelled to walk on\nbetel chew spit, all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like normal\nspit, betel chew spit also causes our cities and towns very unclean and unhygienic.\nThey are a major source of environmental pollution. Tourists hate them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now with the deadly Corona Pandemic very\nmuch in, public spitting of betel chew and associated expectorate (eg. phlegm, mucus) can bring forth death and\ndestruction to people. Hence, this practice must be banned with immediate\neffect.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If people\nwant to publicly chew betel (with or without nuts\/other ingredients), they\nshould be asked to collect their own spit (in private containers), and safely\ndispose them; more preferably take them home with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Severe\nfines should be imposed on people who are found for violating the measures to stop betel chew spitting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who dispose their\ncontainers irresponsibly (people may try to leave them in busy places, parks,\npublic utility terminals); such people should face criminal sentencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(<\/em>The betel chew is extremely addictive.<\/em> Chewing\nof betel nut should be discouraged at every level \u2013 they cause oral cancer,\nthroat cancer, and even cardio-vascular arrhythmias).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Way\nforward<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the\ncurfew, many people still walk on our roads\/streets. They include the armed\nforces\/police personnel, and street cleaners. Because of the spits, these good,\nhard working people could easily become infected with the Corona Virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should\nalso not forget the homeless people, beggars who live on the streets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are\nmany others who use the roads\/streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, the ban must be implemented immediately, to save lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to launch a massive publicity campaign\nabout the ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 (A\nchewinggum ban is successfully in place in Singapore since early\n1990s).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage General Spitting and expectorate (eg. phlegm, mucus) People do not care about spitting in public places.  They have become accustomed to it. They will continue to do it freely and openly, without fear.  It is very bad for sanitary and health reasons. Their actions cause environmental pollution\/public nuisance.  It is very bad for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanaka-bandarage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}