Smoking in the Boysroom

Well, not actually in the boys room but how about in the car or a public place. People are always complaining about the aspect of smoking that adds carbon monoxide to the air and carcinogens to their body, putting them at risk. They are quick to point out all the bad aspects of health and the costs involved to our healthcare system and quality of life.

Let's look at 3 quick aspects of smoking to put this in perspective. A lot of people that complain about smoke, perhaps with a little "fake" cough, don't seem to cough when thousands of cars drive by them with exhaust streaming out of the tailpipe to the tune of thousands of tons. They also seem to happily drive and idle their car - how hypocritical. There are "free" programs for detox, drugs, and a variety of health issues. Surely we could have programs to help people quit smoking...serious detox programs with serious support. Perhaps we could by smokes in singles to reduce our intake and fill a single craving instead of a single pack. Solutions lie within society and we are responsible to make these changes.

There are however a couple other things about cigarettes that bother me and I'm a smoker...why do we have to throw our butts on the ground. It is not hard to put it out and throw it in a garbage can. Even though offices and stores have reduced the number of ashtrays outside (which means more litter), there are still plenty of them available. The final aspect of flicking your butt out a car window is the danger involved...they have been known to start fires and to burn peoples wipers or cars (also land inside someone else's car) and the mess they make is unbelievable. Recently, there was a case where someone got charged with this because they had started a huge forest fire. We have ashtrays in our cars and garbage cans everywhere. If you can't quit, then at least be courteous about your smoking.