A Little Killer
Secondhand smoke is a killer, even a little. That is why more smokers are banned from restaurants, bars and even building entrances. One public service announces: “When you smoke, you’re not the only one being harmed.” That is not a fiction. Studies showed nonsmokers who lived with smoking persons had some increase in heart disease and lung cancer.
The authority of Calabasas, California, has prohibited smoking everywhere outdoors where a nonsmoker could be within 20 feet of a smoker. Barry Groveman, the former mayor, said: “It is about public safety. This is by every standard a public health law.”
One of the activists says: “And if I were to walk up to you and have an aerosol can filled with 4,000 chemicals and say, ‘Excuse me, do you mind if I spray this in your face,’ you’d think I was out of my mind, but when somebody smokes a cigarette, that’s what they’re doing.”
Dr. Michael Siegel, a leading advocate of bans on smoking says: “If someone is just exposed for 30 minutes, it’s completely reversible, and it’s not gonna cause hardening of the arteries. It has turned into more of a crusade. The cause has kind of taken over.”
Some anti-smoking advocates insist on the ban even inside apartments because now people are complaining about smoke going from one apartment to another apartment. The people in other apartments are harmed since the rate of toxicity in the smoke is very high.
Siegel added: “I think the documented health effects of secondhand smoke are enough. I don’t think we need to be stretching the truth.”
