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... Ever since I developed my asthma like condition 10 years ago I have been a real big proponent of people not smoking around me. This is not to say I didnt like people smoking around me before this its just that now it feels like an Assult on me physically everytime I have to breathe in someone's smoke.
I have gone round and round with people; I suppose part of me wanted some compassion for what I was going though and what cigarette smoke was doing to me. Most if not all the people I would explain this too didnt care and I soon gave up trying to get people to understand; so I developed more an offensive posture toward people that would smoke around me.
I would hear comments like "I have asthma too" like its no big deal ... ie coming form the people that smoke. Or I would be subjected to the smoke and it was my problem that I had asthma; or that I was just 'overdramatizing' what it would do to me. The past 2 years have brought a lot of conflict in regards to smoking to me; in regards to my living environment and my work environment.
When I drive around now and listen to the radio and I hear a anti-smoking commercial or see a anti-smoking bill-board I just smile. I can remember seeing ads and billboards plastered with cigarette ads. I remember my mother sending me to school 45 mins away from where I lived and me having to ride in this car with this guy that would smoke non-stop all the way there; I remember trying to hold my breathe all the way there.
anyways I know this sounds like a rant; ya it is ...
here is the news clipping if you wanted to take a look at it
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_216000/216998.stm
I suppose I am quite bitter nowadays when it comes to people smoking around me. I find myself hating the persons that are smoking and I dont often hate people.
Sean
In Reply to: Smoking could eventually kill a third of all young Chinese men. posted by Sean on March 12, 2002 at 03:23:24:
I can relate, Sean! The problem is not really the smoking; it is that people can be incredibly selfish and rude and disrespectful toward others. It wouldn't kill them to wait to smoke their stinkin' cigarette later! Rude people come in all colors, shapes, and sizes, but sometimes I wonder what's wrong with smokers that makes them ruder than the rest of us.
In Reply to: Re: Smoking could eventually kill a third of all young Chinese men. posted by Can't breathe on March 12, 2002 at 14:32:40:
"...but sometimes I wonder what's wrong with smokers that makes them ruder than the rest of us."
I am not defending rude smokers, but wanted to point out that they are addicts. A VERY STRONG need to smoke comes upon them when their nicotene levels get low. NO, it won't kill them to smoke their cigarettes later, it just FEELS like it will kill them.
I used to smoke. I always tried to be considerate of non-smokers, unless I was in a specified smoking allowed area. It bothered me to think I might be makeing someone else uncomfortable. One of many reasons I quit was that I found it harder and harder NOT to bother others with my smoke! It got so I was always uncomfortable while I was smoking.
Now I avoid it at all costs, but it was not an easy thing to do, quitting...I feel sorry for those who are still addicted.
~~~8>
In Reply to: Re: Smoking could eventually kill a third of all young Chinese men. posted by Can't breathe on March 12, 2002 at 14:32:40:
I am a smoker and try to be considerate of others that it
might offend. I think that smokers that give people a hard
time may have been given one by non smokers complaining and
reacting to others the same way. Though I can understand
an irritated reaction by someone who IS being irritated,
others can't and just react.
My dad tore my first packof smokes that he found in half
but on his death bed told me to smoke if I wanted to since
he didn't think that him not smoking or quiting did him
much good and told me to follow my grandfather who was 20yrs
older and not him.
It is always better to ask politely and Try to explain
ones position but that won't always help but then if one is
being irritated it is better for them to avoid the
irritation since the smoker isn't being bothered and some
people just don't care OR are having a Bad day.
VF
In Reply to: Rudeness of smokers...the problem *is* the smoke! posted by labrat on March 12, 2002 at 14:44:03:
Evidently you were "addicted" too. Yet you were considerate enough of others not to smoke when it offended them. So it can be done. . . the "addiction" sounds like an excuse/copout to me for rude behavior.
In Reply to: But you, labrat, illustrate my point posted by Can't breathe on March 12, 2002 at 19:54:40:
I agree that people use all sorts of finger pointing to point out why they must smoke here and now or just smoke in general.
Honestly I am upset at the tobacco industry but I get more upset when neighbors smoke so much that it waffs into my apartment and there is nothing I can do about it but move.
the thing that 'ticks' me off the most is for people to smoke around kids or children or babies for that matter; again I had some neighbors whom looked respectable on the outside by their appearance; but they smoked like chimneys and the mother was pregnant and then had child all the while smoking like there was no tomorrow. The 'dad' would carry the baby carriage in one hand and have a cigarrette in the other. That just totally disgusts me. I begin to loath people like that; and like I said previously I dont consider myself a people hater but sometimes I cant help it.
I do appreciate people whom are considerate and smoke away from others that it bothers; and generally you can tell or simply ask.
Sean
In Reply to: Smoking could eventually kill a third of all young Chinese men. posted by Sean on March 12, 2002 at 03:23:24:
Thanks, Sean.
More than 30 years ago research found 5/6ths as much nicotine in the urine of any non-smokers in the room with anyone who was smoking, as there was in the urine of the smoker.
Passive smoking has been known since then to be a real public health hazard. Every year, more and more statistics pile up substantiating that.
I had donated my time lecturing to the Cancer Society about the dangers of smoking, and how to quit, physiologically, for years. However when I started emphasizing the dangers of passive smoking (20 years ago) they stopped inviting me to speak. That was when I began to be suspicious of the Cancer Society's motives.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: But you, labrat, illustrate my point posted by Sean on March 12, 2002 at 21:35:16:
as I said, I was not trying to defend rudeness, just provide a bit of explanation perhaps.
I moved fairly recently to a state where smoking is much more tolerated and it's just awful!
~~~8>
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