In the category of What Non-smokers Already Knew:
The Surgeon General has stated that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Article
Separate smoking sections don’t cut it: Only smoke-free buildings and public places truly protect nonsmokers from the hazards of breathing in other people’s tobacco smoke, says a long-awaited surgeon general’s report.
So when you go out to dinner and you request the nonsmoking section and they seat you 3 feet away from the smoking section and you spend the next 90 minutes coughing and rubbing your burning eyes, it’s not just your imagination. You are being exposed to potentially fatal levels of secondhand smoke. As if you didn’t know that already.
Some other interesting findings:
“There is no longer a scientific controversy that secondhand smoke is a killer,” he said. The report “eliminates any excuse from any state or city for taking halfway measures to restrict smoking, or permitting smoking in any indoor workplace.”
Among other findings:
# Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air and ventilation systems don’t eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke.
# There is good evidence that comprehensive smoking bans, such as those in New York City and Boston, don’t economically hurt the hospitality industry.
# Workplace smoking restrictions not only reduce secondhand smoke but also discourage active smoking by employees.
# Secondhand smoke can act on the arteries so quickly that even a brief pass through someone else’s smoke can endanger people at high risk of heart disease. Don’t ever smoke around a sick relative, Carmona advised
# Living with a smoker increases a nonsmoker’s risk of lung cancer and heart disease by up to 30 percent.
I am a militant nonsmoker – no doubt about it. I won’t even try to pretend otherwise. It stinks. It fouls the air. It’s a major cause of grass and forest fires, as well as home fires that cause thousands of deaths every year. Not to mention the tens of thousands of people who die horrible, gasping deaths from lung cancer and emphysema each year. If you want to kill yourself, fine, but don’t take me down with you, k?
I hate when smokers say they have a right to smoke in restaurants and hotels and bars. You do not have the right to endanger my life by making me breathe in that shit. Not that you asked me, but if you did ask me if I mind that you smoke I’d probably answer “Sure you can smoke, mind if I fart?”
If I came into a restaurant and began spraying a can of Raid into the air I would expect that people might get annoyed. So why can’t smokers understand that everyone has the right to breathe clean air?
On a final note I’ll give you a little background. I grew up in a family with 8 children and both of my parents smoked 1 to 2 packs a day. Now that we are grown 5 of the 8 of us have asthma to the point of having to take daily medication for it. My mother is in the end stages of emphysema and still smokes.
I will no longer frequent restaurants that allow smoking, even if it is in a separate room.
I hope this new report is the beginning of the end of smoking sections.
End of rant.