I
confess that I am rather critical of smoking. At the very least, it is an inconsiderate habit when
someone feels he has the right to smoke around others whether they like it or
not. My parents were both very heavy smokers when I was growing up.
I'd often get car sick because the car reeked of
cigarettes and I was breathing the smoke. To this day, my stomach tightens if I'm in a car frequented by smokers. Just walking along a street I can pick out a smoker's car, his house, simply by the smell. Eating next to a smoker at an outdoor restaurant? Forget it. I'll move to
another table. Does the smoker care that I do so? Probably not.
It's his right to smoke outside. Should I be forced inside just so that
I'm not ingesting smoke with my food? On a cold day I think: Look what your addiction is doing to you - affecting
your quality of life to the extent that you freeze out here, just because you
have to smoke.
But
much more than that, I think that an addiction to tobacco is as harmful as an
addiction to alcohol. How many forest fires have destroyed acres of
beautiful trees, homes, wildlife habitats, killed firefighters, animals, and used up natural resources like water to control the blaze?
How many homes have burned to the ground, sometimes killing the
inhabitants, because a careless smoker fell asleep with a cigarette in his
hand? What about the cancer statistics -- the proven fact that tobacco causes
cancer of the mouth, esophagus, lungs? Non-smokers - people forced to
breathe second hand smoke - are at risk of cancer too. If a smoker doesn't
kill himself with tobacco - often prematurely - he may kill someone else,
usually a loved one. How selfish is that? My aunt (my mom's sister)
died of lung cancer. She was only in her 50's - and a heavy smoker. My mother
was completely devastated, and the family felt the loss for some time. The
silver lining was that both my parents gave up smoking on the spot, cold
turkey, and never smoked again. Doing so probably prolonged their lives.
