Puff Puff Cough Cough 1 comment
I’ve been participating in a conversation on a travel oriented discussion board about a certain travel destination (one of my favorites) possibly going non-smoking. Yay!
The conversation has gone from both ends of the spectrum but it always seems that people get confused about one thing. The smokers think non-smokers are anti-cigarettes-smoking because we care about their health.
That is just so weird.
I could care less if people are smokers. I could care less about their health. If cigarettes are making their days happy ones, then who am I to deny them happiness?
I don’t care if smokers smoke. I do care if they smoke around me. I make a huge effort in my day to day running around in this life to not be around cigarette smoke, or resolve myself to be sick if I am. I will leave if I see someone light up. I won’t go to a restaurant that has ashtrays. I’ll cross the street if someone is walking towards me smoking while they walk. I can’t be in a car with my own mother … But fortunately in California, I don’t have to worry so much about it anymore.
But it’s the passively hurting other people, namely me, that gets me riled up.
I find it weird that smokers think it is their ‘right’ to passively hurt other people. I understand the right to want to do as you please and not wanting to be restricted. There are a lot of things in this world that I would like to be able to do but are against the law, or against the ideals of capitalism, but that’s another post. But none of the things I want to do would hurt other people (as far as I know).
I really don’t care if people smoke, it’s not a self-righteous liberal ideal I hold, but rather that I’m allergic to cigarette smoke. Not smoke in general, and not tobacco as I can be around cigar smoke and pipe smoke … I’m allergic to one (or more, but one for sure) of the 18 added chemicals in cigarettes – I think ammonia, because I get the same reaction from Windex.
As the conversation continues, the smokers will inevitably make comparisons between smoking and drinking or smoking and eating fast food, or junk food … but they just don’t get that, in the moment, their drinking or their eating fast food does not harm me or anyone else. But the smoke from their cigarettes does affect me, and everyone else who happens to be around a smoker.
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I hear ya, sister. Being an asthmatic, being around 2nd hand smoke literally makes me sick and can quite easily bring on an asthma attack. If smokers want to smoke in the privacy of their own smoke-filled home, god bless ‘em.
There used to be a gaggle of smokers that used to cluster outside the office – right outside the entrance. So, everyday going in and out of that building I had to pass through their smoke. It seemed pretty unfair. Fortunately, when we moved to new offices, they put this very bizarre circle of shame smoking area out away from everyone else. Amidst our perfectly manicured lawn, right within view of the cafeteria, there is an ugly dirt circle, and there and only there is where people are allowed to smoke.
Soon our company is going to put a no smoking anywhere on the premises policy – which is a good thing, since we are a health care company, for crying out loud.