Editor,
As I sit in my lab and tackle the frustration and challenge of my graduate work, I take salvage in the fact that I can take a break, walk a few feet to the outdoor walkway and enjoy the relaxation of smoking a cigarette.
I am a smoker and I love it. Unfortunately, health risks of smoking are well documented and if I continue smoking, chances are good that I will die young from cardiovascular disease. The fact is, however, that I have a serious addiction. It is embarrassing for me to be a smoker, especially because I am a graduate student in Biomedical Sciences. I want to quit and I plan on doing so after I graduate. This should not be confused, however, with any desire for other people to tell me what to do.
Being employed by a medical school, I know more about the risks of smoking than most; I am lectured on new aspects of the risk daily, as research and medical doctors pass me by. People seem to hold no shame, fear, or embarrassment about telling me to quit smoking. However, if I walk up to an obese woman in a restaurant and tell her she needs to quit eating, she might forget about my concern for her increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer and just slap me in the face. It might stop me from going into a restaurant and putting up a “Fat People Can’t Eat Here” sign, but it didn’t stop others from putting an outdoor “No Smoking” sign at my building’s walkway smoking spot. Why? That’s a good question.
“Second-hand smoke poses serious health risks.” This certainly seems to be true when people are exposed in confined areas, for hours a day, and for years at a time. I challenge a serious researcher to cite statistical effects from short-term outdoor exposure. While they’re at it, they should also take action to block off Lomas Boulevard and all other roads through campus, as automobile exhaust contains many of the carcinogens present in cigarettes.
Scratch that; let’s just forbid driving altogether as it poses serious health risks with over a million deaths per year. While smoke blown directly into someone’s eyes can cause irritation or aggravate asthma, so can punching him or her in the face — we just expect people not to do it.
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“Cigarette smoke smells bad!” Perhaps the person with this argument hasn’t been in a chemistry or animal research lab. I guess we better halt all research that emits odors so as not to offend those passing by. “Cigarette smoke is bad for you!” We better add to our agenda shutting down McDonald’s, Frontier and all the bars.
Perhaps smoking prevents the diseases of one of the largest clinical fields in medicine — geriatrics. Maybe I won’t get Alzheimer’s, lose my mobility and eyesight, or spend my time enforcing futile outdoor smoking bans.
W. Mike Brown
UNM student
