The American Lung Association has awarded Monrovia an F for its efforts to reduce smoking ( http://goo.gl/v5GlXH ).
Comment: Well, good for Monrovia! I believe smoking is just as unhealthy as the ALA says it is, and I believe restrictions on smoking in enclosed public places are a very good idea, but things have gone too far. Smokers are chased away from public places, often including open parks, and there are even moves to prevent them from smoking in their own homes. Isn't dying early enough punishment? Must they also be treated as pariahs?
- Brad Haugaard
The problem isn't that the smokers are killing themselves, the problem is that smokers kill others with their secondhand smoke. They smoke and die of their own free will, but other have no choice when we inhale their secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke has been proven in studies to be as harmful if not more harmful than the filtered smoke that the smokers themselves get.
ReplyDeleteYes, in a free society people ultimately have the right within the law to choose their own lifestyle, even when it may damage their own health. However people do not have the right to damage the health of others, or to impose an intolerable degree of inconvenience or nuisance on others.
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