Smoking shouldn?t be allowed in public

In the recent past, I took a trip to Florida. While on the way there, we stopped in a restaurant in Georgia. When we went inside we were asked how many would be in our party. After telling her, I also added ?Non-smoking please.?

She proceeded to tell me that Georgia had banned smoking in public places. She asked me where I was going and I told her Florida. She went on to tell me that Florida was the same way.

What a wonderful surprise that was for me. I got to sit anywhere I wanted and I didn?t have to worry about the lingering cloud from puffing smokers and smoldering cigarettes in the smoking section making it?s way from the other room. Even with good ventilation, I can still smell the aroma of cigarettes. If I can smell it, then I?m getting the contamination from it.

Apparently, some states are beginning to realize that it?s a hazard to non-smoking adults and children and are instituting this type of ban. After looking into it, other states including Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, California, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Montana, Ohio and Nevada have all banned smoking in most public places. Arizona?s ban will begin in May, 2007. Also, smoking in restaurants is banned in a number of cities and counties in other states, but it is still common.

I can?t wait until it?s uncommon to allow smoking in public places. I wish I could add Tennessee to the list. I saw a bumper sticker once that said ?At least I can still smoke in my car!? That kind of statement will never cease to amaze me. Smokers will uphold their right to smoke, and argue the point, regardless of the number of people they are harming, including themselves.

I choose not to smoke because I don?t want to go to the doctor some day and be told they have found little black spots on my lungs. I also choose not to smoke because I don?t want my children to be forced to inhale the secondhand smoke from my cigarettes.

Best I can tell, there is no real way to segregate smokers from non-smokers effectively. Non-smokers will agree with me: There is no such thing as non-smoking if someone in the building is allowed to smoke. If one person smokes, we are all smoking. Our bodies apparently don?t know the difference because we are harmed by the presence of smoke the same as the smoker.

Secondhand smoke contains most of the 4,000 chemicals and at least 50 known carcinogens that are generated by smoking. Secondhand smoke causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths in non-smokers each year, and approximately 35,000 deaths due to heart disease annually (statistics from the American Cancer Society).

There has to be a happy medium somewhere. I deserve the right to live my life smoke-free just as much as others do to live their life smoke-filled. Let?s face facts, non-smokers aren?t the ones polluting the air. We breath because people have to breath to continue life. Although smokers don?t want to, or think they can?t, they can live without smoking.

Smoking is an addiction and it?s not that easy to quit, but it is possible. My mom smoked for 50 years or more and was able to quit. If she was able to quit her three-pack-a-day, chain-smoking habit, then anyone can.

I?m all for a smoke-free Tennessee and I can?t wait until we get a chance to vote for or against banning smoking in public places. I?ll have every non-smoker I know waiting in the non-smoking line.

Lisa Hobbs is a reporter for the Standard. She can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].