Where do I even start with this? Let's start with this past Saturday night. It was my best friend's birthday on Sunday so we went out for the night to celebrate. Now, there are numerous reasons why you won't find me in bars very much and one of the biggest reasons is cigarette smoke! Every time I come home from bars or clubs the result is always the same. I smell like a damn smoke stack by the time I get home, my hair feels so grimy I feel the need to bathe for about eight hours and the next day I always feel like I was the one smoking nine packs the night before. Saturday was no different.After inhaling poisonous smoke for five hours, it not only embedded itself in my clothes, but my lungs, hair and eventually my car as well. As I lay trying to sleep I found myself coughing and feeling congested. There was a tightness in my lungs and my throat felt like an iron rake was going to town on it. I could not sleep, my eyes were sore and watery and I felt like complete garbage. I knew what I was going to talk about later on that day on-air.
About a week and a half ago Sterling had discussed the topic of banning smoking in public places. I happened to be in the studio that day (rare daytime appearance) and threw my own two cents in about it. Sterling, a smoker, is for smoking in public places. Her main argument was the government overstepping business owners and telling them how to run there business. She had more arguments, but that was her main point. Sterling, if you read this and disagree with that statement, let me know. But that's what I took away from her argument.
Here now is my argument against smoking in public places. First of all, smoking is a privilege not a right. It's not your right to smoke. It is my right to be able to breathe clean air. Well, as clean as our polluted air can get. I think that no matter what you do, if you do something that adversely affects someone, it is wrong. We are all against drunk driving and it is illegal. Why is it illegal? Cause you can kill or seriously injure someone, including yourself. Smoking is the same thing. You can smoke all you want, but when you blow those toxins in someones face, you are potentially killing them.
Fact: every year there are 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States. Fact: In 2005 there were 16,885 alcohol-related fatalities in car accidents. Both are horrible and avoidable ways to die. And if you look at the numbers you can clearly see that more people are affected each year from second hand smoke. I'm not saying that one is worse than the other, just simply looking at the numbers. Both results from what someone did to affect another.
Now, I'm not gonna sit here and say we should outlaw cigarettes or alcohol, but something needs to be done. In 2004, Ireland became the first country in the world to have a full smoking ban. Ireland! The land of my relatives and where they smoke and drink in the womb! The UK soon followed with a full ban in 2007. Denmark, France, Romania and The Netherlands have broad smoking bans coming in 2008. A number of major cities and states in the U.S. including California and New York have banned smoking in public places. Why would it be so hard to do in Nebraska?
Let's look at the argument of the government telling privately owned businesses what to do. Let the owner decide on how to run their business. Doesn't the government already set rules and regulations in place for the safety of consumers? All businesses such as restaurants need to follow strict guidelines like cleanliness, food preparation, fire codes, etc. They do that to protect us, the consumer. Let's say there wasn't such a thing as the FDA. A restaurant decides not to be very clean and has cockroaches crawling on the floor and rats dropping feces in pots and pans causing serious health hazards to anyone who eats at said restaurant. You wouldn't want to eat there would you? Then you would probably want the government to step in and do something about it. That's what I'm asking for here. You read the statistics. Second hand smoke IS a serious health issue.
More and more workplaces have all but done away with smoke break areas. Businesses have either pushed the smoking area outside or have gotten rid of it all together. We all agree we shouldn't smoke around babies and young kids. Hmmm, I wonder why that is? Maybe it's because we all know it's bad for us. It can destroy an infants developing lungs and encourage young people to start smoking because they see their parents or an influential person doing it. So why should we subject teens who work in restaurants to be around second hand smoke? Most young people's first jobs are at restaurants, but they also work at other places too. Car dealerships, grocery stores, retail stores and so on. It would be insane to think of someone smoking in the middle of any of those businesses. Why should restaurants or bars be any different?
And why are more and more smokers lighting up outside instead of inside their own home? Why do they ash out their car window and throw their buts out instead of using their ash tray? Simple, the smoke seeps into the woodwork, walls and everything inside the house leaving the paint with a shade of yellow and stinking everything up leaving you smelling like a chimney wherever you go. And you can't dirty up your car with those nasty, stinky filters. Plus, your change is in the ash tray! If it's too disgusting for you, how do you think us non-smokers feel? If you thinks it's so bad and so dirty and a terrible habit, why do you think it's okay for you to spread your noxious poisons on to other people?
When I discussed this topic again yesterday I was surprised to not get a lot of opposition. There were some that called and disagreed with me and had some descent points, but no argument against me that really made the point of why banning smoking in public places was a bad thing. Some listeners called up and simply told me to "go somewhere else." Why don't the smokers go somewhere else? That's not a point of argument if you're telling me that cause I can say the same thing. I had so many phone calls yesterday that I couldn't air all of them and it took over my entire shift from Noon-5. Below you will see a player where you can listen to all of the aired calls. I'm working on getting the other phone calls that weren't aired up as well.
If you disagree with me and feel the need to comment or email me, please do I encourage you to! It's 2:52 Tuesday morning and my throat is worse than it was yesterday! Tell me second hand smoke isn't a big deal. Tell me how it would affect our economy and I will ask you, when did a dollar mean more than a human life? Listen to the call at the end, followed by my commentary very closely. I think she has a great idea that's fair to everybody. It makes too much sense though, so we know that will never happen.
Thanks For Listening...And NOT SMOKING!!!
Let me just state that I don't have a lot of time to watch t.v. these days. Well, besides what's on during the overnights which limits me to just about nothing. But as I sat home tonight fighting off allergies (and working out) I caught the premiere episodes of ABC's "Cavemen" and "Carpoolers." Both were preceded with a lot of ads for well over the last month or so. 
