Sigh.. famous last words...'they are not directly affected'. Whether one likes it or not, smoking tobacco is still legal (well maybe everywhere but Kalifornia)..lol The nonsmoking bandwagon was hitched long ago as a catch-all excuse - we needed someone to pick on - America needs a scapegoat. While it's very true that some people grow ill and may even die from what's attributed to an assault on the body by smoking, so many factors are not taken into account that I will continue to remain very suspicious of the 'statistics'. One course in statistical analysis made my hair curl enough to know not to believe anyone's statistics unless you have a clear understanding of the background data. That's not normally shared.
Just so this doesn't become a war between smokers and nonsmokers, I think smoking stinks, gives you bad breath, makes your clothes smell awful, and you just don't smell clean even after a shower (after having dressed ). It permeates everything if you smoke in your home.
I've also smoked for over 35 years...still smoke. In an attempt to beat the odds tho, my current doc has asked me to quit. I only go to the doc if I'm dying, which is the reason for 'current' doc. I haven't had one in very many years. So.. I now only smoke outside. OK, so I'm motivated by the temperature. Going outside when it's -30 or worse, just to have a puff really makes me wonder at my sanity.
Unfortunately, I'm also 'fluffy' (a term used by us that are overweight but don't consider ourselves obese - what an awful term! ). Anyway, I have a genetic heart issue which was just diagnosed, and I was relieved that it had nothing to do with my smoking. My weight, however, while NOT the cause of my issue, certainly contributes to my breathing. Serious - pulmonologist has given my lungs a clean bill of health and capacity, but my weight is starting to cause problems (not serious at this point).
Quandry...I figure my time is at hand to do something about the smoking so I continue to beat the published odds, but the less I smoke, the more I munch.
Anyway, that's my problem ;) The story was to illustrate that the evil that is called smoking doesn't affect everyone the same, and to show that our weight is as much or perhaps more instrummental in our collective inability to stay healthy as anything else. Environment is never discussed during these debates either, because if a person that gets cancer has lived in a city where they commuted by public transportation and have sat at bus stops for years on end, sucking fumes from traffic and public transportion, sprayed their hair with copious amounts of hair spray to keep it in place, and worked next door and downwind from that smelter, then someone might just have to include those factors in their determination of what damaged the lungs.. eh?
At least in the United State of Alaska, what that employer is doing is illegal. An employer has every right to discipline an employee that abuses break times whether or not to smoke, abuses lunch breaks for whatever reason, or doesn't appear for or leave work on time. However, what an employee does on his/her own time is NONE of the employer's business. Will they next do a calorie count of your food intake? After all, if your colesterol is high, it MUST be because of what you're eating...................................
btw.. you live on the wrong side of the tracks - our employees only live in 'this' city and in 'that' neighborhood.
The death of a nation happens slowly.. a little freedom goes here, a liberty goes there, and before you know it's even happened..... people are disappearing, the ones remaining wear insignia to identify them, and history repeats itself.
But HEY!!! it doesn't direclty affect me.. I'm not the group in the barrel THIS go-round..............
Suugar...
