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agate Site Admin
Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 5694 Location: Oregon
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject: Smoking |
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Some years ago I began hearing about "smokefree" apartment buildings and being amazed that they were possible. What were the smokers supposed to do--move out?
I found out that smokers who are already living in a building when it goes "smokefree" can stay on IF they agree to smoke on the balcony, if there is one. If no balcony, I believe they can go on smoking as before, but no new tenants who are smokers would be allowed in.
About 11 years ago the building I live in had a bad fire. An entire floor was gutted, and there was water damage in virtually all of the 54 apartments here. All of us had to evacuate and stay in temporary shelters for anywhere between 4 days and 8 months.
It was an extreme inconvenience and, for many, a hardship. The apartment where the fire broke out was leased to a smoking tenant. I do not know if her cigarettes actually caused the fire. Many people believed so. She was too disabled to be very responsible about watching where her lighted cigarettes ended up.
Recently we were assured that the building was about to be declared smokefree, but this hasn't happened--because some of the smoking tenants urged their cause on the management and apparently won.
It doesn't matter much to me whether the building is smokefree or not, though I've seen the apartments where smokers live and am aware of how everything--walls, curtains, etc.--is covered with a yellowish brown glaze. Since my nose is numb, I don't smell smoke very well and am not particularly bothered by it unless it's very thick.
But I have neighbors who are moving out because they can no longer take the second-hand smoke they are forced to inhale. They have emphysema or other breathing disorders that cause them to need oxygen. Some are on oxygen constantly.
Nobody ever smokes in their apartments, but the smoke from neighboring apartments seeps around the doorframes and creates problems for these people.
Why should my next-door neighbor, a very nice lady who's lived here for 10 years, have to move out because some tenants keep on smoking and creating air that she can't breathe comfortably in?
I've watched many smoking tenants go steadily downhill with lung cancer or emphysema (and eventually die) around here. Some keep on smoking even when they need constant oxygen.
When I was younger, smoking was so prevalent that there was no getting away from it. Everyone in my family except me smoked. In college most of the professors and students smoked in class. You walked into the classroom and there would be a very conspicuous cloud of smoke suspended in the air. The rare nonsmoker in a class had to put up with it uncomplainingly.
My father smoked 3 packs a day all his adult life, which lasted until he was just turned 56, when he had a heart attack. He was told to stop smoking (even then cigarettes were known to cause health problems) but wasn't able to in the few days he stayed alive in the hospital. My mother smuggled cigarettes in for him. A smoker herself until well into her 70s, she knew how hard it was to stop smoking. My father didn't make it. Smoking probably contributed to his early death.
Smoking was so cool back then.
For the brief period when I tried smoking, I was aware that it was getting harder and harder to climb stairs to the 4th floor every morning for an 8 o'clock class. I was 17 years old and shouldn't have been having shortness of breath, but I did. I tried cutting out the cigarettes, and soon I was able to climb the stairs without puffing again.
When my father died, I'd just turned 18--and never went near a cigarette again.
I'm not preaching an anti-smoking sermon here. I feel sorry for the smokers who have to stand out in the rain and cold just so they can have a cigarette. I feel even sorrier for those who are being hurt by now having to put up with smokefree apartment buildings.
I don't know what's right and what's wrong in this controversy. I don't know what would be fair.
Maybe somebody here will help to shed more light on this knotty problem. |
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Sweetyhide
Joined: 26 Jun 2006 Posts: 131
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Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 3:42 am Post subject: |
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I am a smoker. Came from a long line of smokers living in a pro-smoking community (until recently). I respect non-smokers to the best of my ability.
Apartment living is different. You have all kinds of issues you have to adjust to when living so close to others. I remember the building my mother lived in I would gag walking the hall because of all the different odors from cooking.
but this sort of falls back to my opinion that smoking is not as deadly as people think. Yes, I think it may cause or trigger certian problems and it sure does stink.
Reminds me of the story about the lady that was sued because she smoked in her apartment.
link: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/Story?id=4589592&page=1 _________________
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agate Site Admin
Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 5694 Location: Oregon
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Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 9:34 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for posting the link to that interesting story, Sweetyhide. Suing your neighbor on account of that person's second-hand smoke--that has to be one of the more telling examples of how far people are going nowadays in their zeal to make smokers' lives next to impossible.
The smoke-sucking ashtrays mentioned in the article do work, by the way. Or at least they do a pretty good job of sucking up a lot of the smoke in a room.
I had one for several years. It cost about $30 and took 4 big batteries, but it was worth it.
--When making this building smokefree was still being discussed, we were told that tenants wouldn't even be allowed to smoke on their balconies because that wouldn't put them at least 25 feet away from the building. And if they couldn't smoke in their apartments OR on their balconies, what choice would they have but to smoke and hope nobody found them out?
People being people, some would delight in tattling. Then would the manager have to keep knocking on the person's door until the tenant could be caught, lighted cigarette in hand?
My guess is that most managers wouldn't have the time or energy to keep up this kind of campaign. And they'd feel uncomfortable intruding on people's lives. _________________ MS diagnosed 1980.
Avonex 2002-2005. Copaxone 2007-2010.
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agate Site Admin
Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 5694 Location: Oregon
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 1:22 pm Post subject: Article on how hard it is to quit smoking |
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This article (by Jane E. Brody) is from the New York Times, May 20, 2008, and is called "Trying to Break Nicotine's Grip":
http://tinyurl.com/52lgmm _________________ MS diagnosed 1980.
Avonex 2002-2005. Copaxone 2007-2010.
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lady_express_44
Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 1314 Location: Vancouver, Canada
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 6:30 am Post subject: |
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This thread would have to be in the "Fight Club", if I was going to comment.
Cherie _________________ You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers.
You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
Naguib Mahfouz |
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