Banning smoking is simple if you understand it as the
public health manace it is.
People should have the right to breathe smoke-free
air, plain and simple. We shouldn't have to deal with
other people's harmful addictions in any public place
or workplace. Whether I work in a bank or a bar, I
shouldn't have to get cancer to keep a job. Whether I
want to meet friends in a coffee shop or a club, I
should be able to go out whether or not I have heart
or lung disease. Why do smokers get to go anywhere,
see any concert, eat at any restaurant when people
with asthma or heart disease are confined to only go
to smoke-free places? What about nonsmokers' right to
breathe? What about our freedom?
Volumes of research from around the world show time
and again that secondhand smoke causes cancer, causes
heart diasease, causes asthma, and kills tens of
thousands of nonsmokers each year. Cigarette smoke
pollution contains asbestos, benzene, carbon monoxide,
and dozens of other proven cancer causing chemicals.
There is no denying this fact.
No one would tolerate me going to First Ave and
spraying asbestos or benzene into the air, yet we
allow it becuase it's coming out of a cigarette?
Puh-Leeze! This isn't rocket science. Hundereds of
cites have been banning smoking for years and people
love it and business thrives. Most people don't smoke
and most people hate to be around smoking. Few
restaurants and almost no bars are smoke-free on their
own. We have laws to protest people from
environmental hazards and cigarette smoke is among the
biggest killer of any indoor air pollutant. Let's
protect peoples' right and freedom to breathe rather
than any so-called right or freedom to smoke wherever
you please.
Jer Hanson
East Isles
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