*eyeroll*

[conuly]

It's one thing if it bothers you, or irritates your asthma, or you don't like the smell. But it most definitely does not cause any health issues, unless you are the one smoking the cigarette.

Am I wrong to read that sentence as "asthma isn't a health issue"? Because if I am, I'll apologise for thinking her a moronic twit.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

It's not twaddle - it's statistics.

Second hand smoke is dangerous to people who have health problems that make them unusually sensitive to it, such as asthma or an allergy. However, in most cases, it is not dangerous. It is possible that intense, constant exposure can cause health issues, but people use this information to try to make smoking illegal in various places, when casual exposure to second hand smoke has not been shown to have any harmful effects to people who do not have specific related health problems. And we do not make numerous other substances that cause health problems for a small group of people illegal - such as perfume. I have often had sneezing fits or difficulty breathing from other people's perfumes. I'm not sure what aspect in particular triggers problems for me - it's not the smell and it's not all perfumes. But some of them cause me difficulty breathing, and this isn't a terribly unusual problem. Yet perfume is legal. Similarly, it is legal to eat peanut butter sandwiches in public, although that would cause problems for someone I know who is very sensitive and can be irritated by someone even opening a jar of peanut butter near her. We also allow people to walk dogs and cats in public. Smoking falls into the same group - it'll cause serious problems for a small group of people, some varying range of problerms for some people, and have very little effect on most people.

[stagemanager.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected, then.

And I want to generally apologize for my comment up there. Upon re-reading, it sounds very condescending, and I certainly didn't mean it in such a manner.

[leora.livejournal.com]

It's a touchy issue, since for so long people insisted that smoking didn't have any negative health effects - and that is incredibly wrong. Smoking is very bad for the smoker. I generally figure that a person of normal health in the US can best increase their life expectancy by doing the following three things: always wearing their seat belt when in a moving vehicle, not smoking, not being sedentary/getting regular moderate exercise.I do recognize that smoking itself is incredibly dangerous. I've just seen too many people freak out over other people's smoking in annoying and unjustifiable ways.