Keep coming back

Thursday 18 December 2014

You Still Are Second-Hand Smoking Virtually Everywhere

Hey everybody. Stop for a moment and think: When was the last time you smelled cigarette smoke? I'm sorry to say this, but you were smoking it. You are not simply smelling a memory or vague impression. I've taken a measuring tape and calculated tobacco smell coming  from over 110 FEET from an outdoor picnic table near my apartment. There was no detectable wind that day either.

 I was astounded. Could I really be smelling it? Or was my olfactory sense surpassing that of a bloodhound? Well, apparently I'm human.

Folks, how more clearly can I make the case for a tobacco-free world? There is no telling how far away I can smell smoke. I simply ran out of measuring tape at a hundred feet and had to calculate the extra ten feet placing distance markers. The truth is that there is no safe distance from which we can smoke tobacco.

Here in Ottawa new legislation was passed: link to smoke-free outdoor spaces I'm delighted that beaches and parks are smoke-free, as well as all municipal building property, such as libraries, community centres and City Hall. Except the irony is that...

I may spend one hour a year on a beach, yet I and my cat must eat, sleep, meditate etc in my apartment that I call home bombarded with other tenants smoke. I am appalled that my personal living space is inundated with the 7,000+ noxious chemicals.

In 2012 an elderly friend of mine from church told me all the tenants in her building received a letter politely requesting that all smokers buy an air purifier and weatherstrip their door at their expense so as not to disturb other tenants. Now in 2014 I ask myself: When will every single apartment building get on the ball and properly seal leaks between apartments that expose us to deadly second-hand smoke?  I'll be devoting an entire post concerning apartment second-hand smoke.


Here is a short cartoon video to  inspire us to quit smoking

by gifted animator and musician Santhosh Christudas