Hospital extends smoking ban to nearby sidewalks

Cigarettes have triggered my asthma attacks. You can pretend that they don't harm some people, but they do. Even in the outdoors, the smoke goes somewhere. You want to know something? If I'm driving in my vehicle with the vents open, the smell of cigarette smoke from the car in front of me travels to my own car. Granted, I need more than a cigarette's worth of second-hand smoke to get me hospitalized, but it'll do it eventually, and it doesn't take much.

I'm very sorry that you have some sort of genetic condition, but have you ever considered that, in most cases, the exhaust fumes from the car in front of you are more damaging to your health that the smoke from the drivers cigarette? Are you going to suggest we ban the combustion engine next?

As for the smoke going somewhere, you do realize that we're talking about parts per million, here?

Again, I'm sorry that you have health problems, but you can't really claim that you represent the majority, or even a significant minority, so its more than a little unrealistic to say that we should somehow change our laws or policies based on your personal anecdote.

My thoughts exactly. Things have gotten out of hand with this anti-smoking witch hunt. People make poor health decisions all the time and guess what, that is their right as an American adult. There is this ridiculous belief that smokers don't really count as people somehow. For example, people would be up in arms if you went around saying to overweight people eating junk food, "Oh my god! How can you put that crap into your body?! Thats disgusting!! Greasy crap like that should be banned and you should be ashamed of yourself!!!". And yet, that is essentially what we're doing to people who choose to smoke, with policies like this [banning smoking in public outdoor areas]. I know a lot of you are going to start talking about the dangers of second hand smoke, but if we're talking about an outdoor, open air environment, then this argument is completely invalid. The amount of smoke you would take in from someone smoking a cigarette like 10 feet away from you are so minuscule that there is practically no risk to your health. Seriously, it would be worse for you simply breathing in the valley of Los Angeles on certain days. We've gotten so behind this anti-smoking bandwagon, that people stopped looking at actual facts. If someone wants to destroy their own lungs, thats their business, but lets quit pretending that banning smoking in outdoor areas actually protects non-smokers from some kind of health risk.

If you checked out the rest of my post, you will see that I don't think going banning and legislating this is the answer. I also personally don't have the genetic condition. I just have severe persistent asthma. But when I can't walk into a Wal-Mart without getting smoke puffed into my general area, that is not good. If a smoker has to be outside, why does the outside have to be right in front of the doorway? Because it's outside, it's okay? Not necessarily.

I'm not the majority at all, but this does affect more than just the smoker.

Again, read my post before you start putting words in my mouth.

My family has history of a disease called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, of which I am a carrier and DH is as well. (My dad has it.) According to our geneticist we saw, 1 year of CUMULATIVE second-hand smoke for a person with this disease can result in the early-onset emphysema that is typical of this disease.

Fair point. We're in agreement that people should not smoke right in front of a door. As for you not having a genetic condition, I guess misinterpreted your earlier post:



I see now that you were saying that your father has the disease and that you are a carrier. However, I still maintain my point that open air smoking away from doors does not present any significant risk to the general public.

I think my original point is this, in a totally roundabout way...it's disheartening to hear people be cavalier about smoking, saying that it's crap that people get sick from even small amounts second-hand smoke, because I can attest in too many ways for my own liking that that is simply not true for some of us. I guess that's why I brought my anecdotes to the table. You can't tell we're sensitive to the smoke by looking at us. However, just because I am sensitive to smoke, I wouldn't go banning perfume, glue guns, chocolate cake mix, kiwi fruit, latex, cold weather, etc., etc. Exposures to those also exacerbate my asthma.

I understand and appreciate what your saying. As one of those cavalier people, I guess I should clarify my point. Outdoor, open air second hand smoke does not represent a significant health risk to the huge majority of people. I understand that there are certain people that are unusually sensitive to it. But, like you said, the same can be said of almost anything. So while latex or kiwi fruit [to use a few of your examples] could easily hospitalize certain people, this does not mean that they are dangerous, in general, nor does it mean we need more legislation to protect people from them. Really, I think we agree more than we're disagreeing here, so I apologize if I came off as overly argumentative.

Yes this is the sort of thing that goes on. How would you like to own the house across the street and have hundreds of people loitering around and leaving their smelly old butts on your front steps. I have had home owners tell me they had that experience.