Ya know what?
It's sad that laws and regulations against smoking are even necessary.
"The freedom to swing my fist ends at my neighbour's face."
Sure, you have a right t enjoy your cigarette.
They're your lungs and if you don't mind filing them with crap, that's your business. However, second hand smoke has been proved to be harmful, whether anyone wants to admit or acknowledge those studies and case histories. Just ask Heather Crowe.
I am a non smoker. At one time, before they had to enforce a regulation against smoking by anyone within a foster home, I was living with 5 smokers. I spent most of my time in my room because I couldn't breathe when everyone sat around puffing on their cigarettes.
I also worked for over 20 years with smokers who were allowed to light up in the breakroom. There were times when the air in the breakroom was so thick you could cut it, even with the vent running full force. (There was one place I worked where they didn't even have a vent.)
All these years I sat, silently inhaling those toxic chemicals coming from the unfiltered end of a cigarette.
My answer to, "Do you mind if I smoke," (if they even bothered to ask), was always, "It's a free country."
I always felt, just because I chose not to smoke, that did not give me the right to force others not to smoke around me. I could have simply gone somewhere else to sit, but why should I have to be the one to go find a smoke free place to eat my lunch or drink my coffee?
I now have a chronic cough that will not go away. It has actually become so chronic that I don't even notice it any more. My sister does, though. Every time we're together, she notices my cough, and she keeps bugging me to go for a chest X-ray, but I am just a little afraid to do that. I always brush it off by saying that it's just me getting over a cold, or that she only sees me when I have a cold. She wants to know who has a cold that lasts 4 years or more.
So, you can dress it up all you want and claim laws and regulations on smoking are impeding your rights as a citizen and you can insult people who point out that you are putting everyone around you at harm all for the sake of your own pleasure and enjoyment. (Personally, I prefer to think of it as putting others at risk to feed your own addiction, but whatever.)
You can make ridiculous claims that people can just hold their breath when they pass by you smoking outside a building.
You can even imply that you aren't deliberately harming other people, but the fact is, the world has known for more than 40 years that smoking kills. I am 48 years old and I remember when I was in grade school, watching an old black and white TV documentary about people who got cancer from smoking.
It has been at least 20 years since the studies were done on the effects of second hand smoke. Obviously, the studies were done because people were dying and there was a lot of questioning whether second hand smoke was connected to those deaths.
To stand back and say you aren't deliberately hurting anyone is ignorant and stupid. There is no excuse for not knowing that your activity is hurting others.
Yeah, it sucks that we have the government meddling in our private lives, enacting laws that impede our freedom, but sometimes, when people are too stubborn and pigheaded to realize they are hurting others, the government does have to step in and force them to smarten the hell up.
It's sad that laws and regulations against smoking are even necessary.
"The freedom to swing my fist ends at my neighbour's face."
Sure, you have a right t enjoy your cigarette.
They're your lungs and if you don't mind filing them with crap, that's your business. However, second hand smoke has been proved to be harmful, whether anyone wants to admit or acknowledge those studies and case histories. Just ask Heather Crowe.
I am a non smoker. At one time, before they had to enforce a regulation against smoking by anyone within a foster home, I was living with 5 smokers. I spent most of my time in my room because I couldn't breathe when everyone sat around puffing on their cigarettes.
I also worked for over 20 years with smokers who were allowed to light up in the breakroom. There were times when the air in the breakroom was so thick you could cut it, even with the vent running full force. (There was one place I worked where they didn't even have a vent.)
All these years I sat, silently inhaling those toxic chemicals coming from the unfiltered end of a cigarette.
My answer to, "Do you mind if I smoke," (if they even bothered to ask), was always, "It's a free country."
I always felt, just because I chose not to smoke, that did not give me the right to force others not to smoke around me. I could have simply gone somewhere else to sit, but why should I have to be the one to go find a smoke free place to eat my lunch or drink my coffee?
I now have a chronic cough that will not go away. It has actually become so chronic that I don't even notice it any more. My sister does, though. Every time we're together, she notices my cough, and she keeps bugging me to go for a chest X-ray, but I am just a little afraid to do that. I always brush it off by saying that it's just me getting over a cold, or that she only sees me when I have a cold. She wants to know who has a cold that lasts 4 years or more.
So, you can dress it up all you want and claim laws and regulations on smoking are impeding your rights as a citizen and you can insult people who point out that you are putting everyone around you at harm all for the sake of your own pleasure and enjoyment. (Personally, I prefer to think of it as putting others at risk to feed your own addiction, but whatever.)
You can make ridiculous claims that people can just hold their breath when they pass by you smoking outside a building.
You can even imply that you aren't deliberately harming other people, but the fact is, the world has known for more than 40 years that smoking kills. I am 48 years old and I remember when I was in grade school, watching an old black and white TV documentary about people who got cancer from smoking.
It has been at least 20 years since the studies were done on the effects of second hand smoke. Obviously, the studies were done because people were dying and there was a lot of questioning whether second hand smoke was connected to those deaths.
To stand back and say you aren't deliberately hurting anyone is ignorant and stupid. There is no excuse for not knowing that your activity is hurting others.
Yeah, it sucks that we have the government meddling in our private lives, enacting laws that impede our freedom, but sometimes, when people are too stubborn and pigheaded to realize they are hurting others, the government does have to step in and force them to smarten the hell up.
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