Writer's Block: Tobacco road

[dionysius]

[Error: unknown template qotd]Yes. Of course smokers will say no, and other people who say no are probably healthy and have never had a lung complaint in their lives. Why should those with respiratory problems have to risk their health by being exposed to cigarette smoke in every street? People spin shit like saying "there are worse things in the air"... But I don't think car smoke has so many carcinogens, plus I don't have my breath cut off by it all the time. Being an asthmatic, it sucks. I guess smokers never stop to think that the person behind them could have a real health problem and their smoke could exacerbate it - if smoke can give me an asthma attack, it could sure kill someone who has a much worse condition than mine. Is the right to be out in public and not be attacked by smoke not more important than the "right to smoke"? Smokers hark on about their "rights"... what rights? Yes, you can kill yourself with your smokes if you want, but the problem is that it doesn't just affect YOU when you smoke.

If I went around in public spraying people with carcinogenic products, I'd probably go to jail. Yet smokers do it. Smoking's pretty much only legal because they gave it to soldiers in the wars, right?

Ideally, it'd be banned altogether, but it'd never work. I'd be happy with designated smoking areas. It means I can avoid them and smokers can still smoke (seeing as some smokers are comparing the "right to smoke" with things like freedom of speech, jeez). Smoking's NOT a basic civil right. If you want to die, as I say, be my guest, but don't do it in a way that takes others with you. I actually just read someone say "What's next? Banning food in pubs because of obesity?" Yes, because being obese directly harms those around you and causes oncogenic mutations in their DNA...

Almost I want it to happen just once to smokers that someone behind them has a huge asthma attack or something. For them to realize just how much impact their disgusting habit has on other people. Would they stop to help? Well, I'd refuse to let a smoker help me because they'd make it worse by breathing it all over me and stuff... but for someone to realize that it's THEIR fault people could die from the acute effects of smoke (because like, NO ONE gets second hand lung cancer, right? ¬_¬).

Comments

[smishingtrip.livejournal.com]

Ugh, tell me about it. I just start coughing and hacking and hope they decide to put it out. Also, I hate when there's a clearly designated smoking area, and people still refuse to use it!!

[richard-vw.livejournal.com]

I hack and cough too - sometimes we totally exaggerate just so they get the point, but smokers just think that's us being "holier-than-thou" and pretentious or something like that. ¬_¬ A designated area is the closest compromise we're going to get, but still smokers think they're more important than us non-smokers and so don't have to use the areas or something. So frustrating!

[fantasmcorgasmc.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree with you more! Obviously, I don't smoke. I know that smokers feel like it violates some unwritten right, but it doesn't. They have outlawed smoking in restaurants where I live and it was the best thing... ever.

[richard-vw.livejournal.com]

I agree that smokers seem to take it personally when someone's anti-smoking. I'm not against the person's choice to smoke as such, simply the fact that it affects other people just as much when they smoke. They've outlawed smoking inside buildings here too, and it's amazing. :D Bad thing is that you get hit by it as you leave and enter, but better than smoking indoors.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__cottoncandy__/]

I absolutely agree with you! I think one reason for this is the lack of concern most people have for others. Where I live smoking has been banned inside every building, including bars. Now everyone smokes outside right in front of the door so everyone entering gets attacked with it, instead of designated smoking areas behind the building. I'm not a smoker but if I was, there's no way I'd put other people in danger by smoking around them!

[richard-vw.livejournal.com]

I think the lack of concern is most of the problem. Smokers act all offended when people are against smoking, but I'm not against anyone's choice to smoke as such - only that it affects others, sometimes just as much. They've outlawed smoking in buildings here too (thank God) but we get the same problem of smokers in the doorways. It's especially annoying at uni, when you can get stuck in a crowd and surrounded by smoke. A designated smoking area is the closest thing feasible to making everyone reasonably happy yet smokers think they're too important to have to go use them, apparently. :/

[katie087.livejournal.com]

Amen to this!! I totally agree. And I have athsma too.
In the US they have whole non smoking apartment buildings. I don't know if you guys have them, but people want them brought to Australia. I'd love to see it take off here.
My friends don't smoke but I know waaaaaaaay too many people who do :(

[richard-vw.livejournal.com]

Here, it's illegal to smoke inside public buildings, but I don't think there's anything against smoking inside apartment buildings - I've smelled smoke in my block a few times, but it's not a big deal. Still, it'd be nice. The thought of someone standing in the lobby and smoking and I've got to go through that! Smoking's mainly a big deal because we all have to suffer with it too. It's the one destructive habit that I can't find a positive for. I honestly don't get why people do it. It "relaxes them"? But it also tastes and smells horrible and they know it kills them! At least with drinking (which I don't do) I can see why people would want to. I think a lot of my friends smoke (I don't really have many friends I see a lot), but it's not really a problem - many smokers are too uptight that they take it as a personal insult if people ask them to stop! I should start spraying people with my asthma inhaler and see how they feel being forced to breathe in unwanted things from other people!