The abolition of smoking in public buildings is an idea whose time has come. Many thanks to Dr. Frank Powell for bringing this issue to public attention.
The benefits of a smoke-free environment are obvious. Smoking sections in restaurants and other buildings cannot contain this noxious gas. Pity the poor waitress who has to work in one of those gas chambers or give up her job.
We hear so much about smokers' rights. I have a right to clean air. No one has a right to infringe upon my space with the dregs of his disgusting habit.
Tobacco is the only known legally sold product that there is no safe way to use. We are rightfully horrified by the approximately 3,000 innocent lives lost in the 9/11 attacks. Annual tobacco deaths are many times that number. Where is the outrage?
Yes, I am an ex-smoker. When I was a punk kid in high school I took up smoking, thinking it would make me like the big boys. Well, it didn't. I was still a punk kid. In those days the horrific results of smoking were not as generally known as they are now.ÝThere were the ads that said "More doctors smoke Camels than any other brand" and "Not a cough in a carload." How little we knew!
I say without a moment's hesitation that taking up smoking was the worst decision I made in my life, and quitting was the best.
Vernon Johnson
Mesena
