Reader Lin Anderson bemoans society’s “discrimination” against smokers: citing smokers being kicked off buses, off trains and out of buildings. What she fails to recognize is that it’s not the smokers themselves-it’s the rude behavior of smokers that’s no longer tolerated.
When a smoker lights up, most of the poisons released into the air immediately permeate the entire air supply of the restaurant, home or office. Secondhand smoke is now classified by the EPA as a Class A carcinogen, meaning that there is no safe level of exposure. In fact, smoking by others is now known to kill some 50,000 Americans every year. That’s twice as many as will die from AIDS.
That a smoker would knowingly pump dozens of cancer-causing and heart disease-causing poisons into any enclosed space is reason enough for legislation and social ostracism. Smokers as well as non-smokers should have the right to breathe uncontaminated air.
