Letter to the Editor
Sick of smoke
Published Sunday, March 16, 2008
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To the editor:
I went for dinner at the Food Factory in North Pole the other day. The food was fabulous and the service was excellent. Halfway through my meal I started to gag. The culprit was that someone had lit a cigarette.
You see, my parents both smoked heavily while I was a kid and now my lungs have scar tissue and damage because of my second-hand exposure to cigarette smoke. I am now very sensitive and severely allergic.
I abruptly ended my dinner got a doggie bag and left.
I am sick and tired of smokers forcing their habit on me. My favorite is the people who take a long drag on their cigarette as they walk to the door of a store. They snuff out the butt then walk into the store to let the smoke out. The other one that annoys me to no end is those standing right outside a door to a public place and I still have to walk through their cancer haze to go in or out.
Thanks to second-hand smoke I am a prime candidate to develop lung cancer. As far as I’m concerned, smoking in a public place is no different than drinking and driving. In both instances somebody chooses to put something harmful in their body and the result is that they risk the health of innocent people.
I really don’t care what people choose to do to themselves — drink, smoke, do drugs, whatever. But don’t bring it out to the general public to risk their health or their lives. I can give you several reasons you shouldn’t do harmful habits — ultimately though it is your choice. But don’t force it on me.
Community Discussion
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They didn't force it on you. In the future you should only patronize non-smoking restaurants. You went to Food Factory knowing they allowed smoking. Go to the Bakery, go to Geraldo's, go to any number of restaurants that don't allow smoking. Give your money to the businesses that provide the food, atmosphere, and service you want. If enough people boycott and pressure privately owned bars and restaraunts to become non-smoking establishments, the owners will change their policy without government interference.
As for the folks who smoke by the entryways and let out smoke while in the store...that's just rude.
Well I for one am sick and tired of the damn sun beating down on me every day and increasing my risk of skin cancer. Something needs to be done about it. I'm also concerned that all this griping by non-smokers is going to raise my stress level to the point of making me physically ill.
yeah.... most restaurants in this area are smoke free now. you don't resent the smoke now. you just resent the smokers. you feel they are intentionally out to harm you. i'm sorry you have had this damage. but believe me, we smokers don't want to do you any harm. but i think you are transferring your anger towards your parents for doing this damage to you onto people like me just because i smoke. please don't do this.
it's funny, you'll get in a car and drive to the restaurant and back putting more pollution into the air in the one trip with the car than i ever will with my cigarettes, yet no one ever suggests we ban cars.
Oh give me a break people, smoking stinks and it sucks. Smokers are very inconsiderate of how their habit effects other people. Smokers themselves need to get some manners and realize not everyone likes to smell like a dirty ashtray. Smoking should be ban from restaurants because it gross and nasty period. No one wants to enjoy a meal with that disguisting smell around, including me and I am a smoker.....
There was a recent campaign by the smoke free folks to encourage restaurants and bars to go smoke free.
Here is a list of some in Fairbanks (and other cities in Alaska) that have smoke free restaurants.
http://www.smoke-freerestaurants.com/Res...
How old are you? I am asking because when I was growing up people were allowed to smoke everywhere, schools, stores, hospitals, churches, airplanes ect.. No one over the age of 35 was NOT heavily exposed, even if their parents did not smoke. Still the air quality in a restaurant that allows smoking is better than most cities, even the small ones like ours. Some like New York and Los Angeles, just living there is equal to smoking 2 packs a day.
Our air quality is compromised every winter by cars, heating our homes and wood burning, yet every time I go to a store I see cars running in the parking lot. The air quality in any given parking lot in the winter here is far worse than going through someones smoke at the door. I can't stand the ones that leave the car running, most times I find that even if left for more than a half hour turned off (even at extreme negatives), my car is still plenty warm after just a few seconds of running. My children and I always dress for the weather though & not in tennis shoes and light coats.
I personally would love to quit smoking, so far that has been unsucessful. Till then though, when I am in a warm place that will allow me to, I will.
Perhaps we should all just stay home in our caves, but wait that wood fire to keep us warm must be the same as second hand smoke, gosh is there no way to stay alive forever??? All of this is YOUR falt...
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Geez,
Not another letter from someone who claims to be assaulted from SHS!!!
Do these letter writers lack the intelligence to determine which private property locations allow tobbaco use and those that do not?
Just who exactly forced them too enter the establishment in the first place?
There are but a few places in Fairbanks that allow tobacco use. So get over it already. This city at least shows some form of tolerence and respect for property owners which many cities today lack.
The claims that SHS is dangerous and people die from it are pure propaganda and lack any hard evidence that anyone as ever died as a result of SHS exposure. There has never been a single documented case of such an event, ever, not one death certificate has ever been written to indicate that SHS caused or even attributed to a persons death.
Until the Anti's have documented cases there only recourse is to use repeated lies and attempt to instigate intolerance and hate.
user6244 (and others who believe SHS is merely propaganda), I would like to say how impressed I am of your ignorance (Is the earth at the center of the universe, too?). First off (I admit), you are correct regarding that SHS exposure has never been labeled as "Cause of Death" on a death certificate, however, neither has "First Hand Smoke". This is because SHS, like smoking directly, is not the cause of death but instead it increases the chance a person has for developing hearth disease, cardiovascular disease, lung disease, asthma, and the likes, all of which lead to increased chance for a premature death. I would encourage people who believe that SHS is nothing more than a sham to peruse a couple scientific journals where detailed studies have been conducted regarding the issue. Here are a couple of resources to look into:
Surgeon General:
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/se...
Science Daily (I entered SHS into search engine):
http://www.sciencedaily.com/search/?keyw...
Now if you don't believe what I have to say, these sites (especially the latter of the two) should be able to back up my statements above with concrete scientific evidence.
Yes, there are restaurants, with better food than the FF, that dont allow smoking. That's the way it should be. Please, no more laws and no more government hand holding of chronic victims. Let the businesses choose, and let the customers choose.
you dont need to explain yourself about your health. I dont care if smoking is bad for me or anyone. What I care about it the stench. I dont like stinking, and I dont like smelling stinky people!
if you are so anti smoking why would you go in to a place where smoking is allowed ? you just want to be a victim. you just want to cry about some thing. if some one owns a bar or restraunt it is their right to allow or not allow smoking. quit being a cry baby and go some where else. or just stay home. i would smoke any where i was allowed to. if i smoked. all my friends and family smoke around me and have all my life. im healthy enough to run on a daily basis. i can jump rope longer than any one i know. i aint buying this second hand smoke crap. it hasnt affected me or any one i know.
I respect the fact that you find cigarette smoke offensive, but what I don't understand is why you would eat at a restaurant with a smoking section, especially when Fairbanks has such a wide choice of eating establishments to choose from. If you truly find cigarettes offensive, then don't place yourself in a situation where you come in contact with SHS. You need to excercise a little common sense, Ms. Swift. The blame here lies with you, not with the smokers at FF.
I agree with the folks on here who say that SHS is propoganda. You place yourself at a greater risk from being hit by a drunk driver than you ever will by breathing in SHS.
We had to do some business the other day at one of the government offices. Prior to our appointment, we got a letter in the mail informing us that we were not allowed to wear ANYTHING with a scent because a person in the office was severely allergic. We disagreed, but complied. Is this next? Are scents to be banned next because some people have allergies to them? Where is the line people?
This anti-smoking thing is so tiresome. IF YOU DON'T LIKE CIGARETTE SMOKE, THEN AVOID PLACES THAT ALLOW IT! These places are becoming less and less. Make your choices with your dollars, and allow the smokers to make their choices with their dollars. I don't smoke anymore, but I CHOOSE to avoid any anti-smoking restaurants, because I don't like their policies. And I guarantee you that if enough people choose to avoid a place because of smoking, then that place will eventually become non-smoking. And yet other restaurant owners will give in to the whiners to be politically correct. I for one hope that every business owner out there that allows smoking in their business holds strong against these whining and demanding folks.
It's called personal choice and responsibility for that choice. How many more people are killed/harmed by alcohol abuse every year in comparison to cigarette smoke? Let's get some perspective now, shall we? Leave the smokers be.
AJ Stratman, your comment is truly ridiculous, but thank you for the chuckle. I need that this morning.
I call BS on the statement that death certificates have never indicated smoking as the cause or contributed to a persons death the damn certficates even have a check box for it.
It is true though that even the direct use of tobacco has only been associated with incidence of everything under the sun but never have they found a direct link to any associations.
Don't believe me how about taking all the Junk science studies together and tell me why over 67% of the studies are statistically insignificant in there findings
Here are some studies that actually used measurements instead of questionnaires/junk science studies http://www.forces.org/evidence/evid/vent...
Environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality in a prospective study of Californians, 1960-98 - May 19th, 2003 - "The results do not support a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality, although they do not rule out a small effect. The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed."
DID YOU KNOW?... - Enormous German study on passive smoke, cancer and cardiovascular disease says: >NO CONNECTION< - April, 2003 -- , this milestone study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology has been so thoroughly ignored by the public health gangs and its media servants - it is criminal! The enormous study covers 37 years, during which thousands of flight attendants have been followed and monitored for cancer. Furthermore, this is not a study based on questionnaires asking whether uncle Jack smoked more or less in 1956, as it's the case for most antismoking junk science -- nor it is something started and finished in a few months. Finally, it is neither financed by the tobacco industry, the pharmaceutical industry, nor is it supported by "public health" funds allocated to produce scientific frauds to support public health's frauds on smoking. All that explains the results. Here is an excerpt that says it all:
"We found a rather remarkably low SMR [standardized incidence ratio] for lung cancer among female cabin attendants and no increase for male cabin attendants, indicating that smoking and exposure to passive smoking may not play an important role in mortality in this group. Smoking during airplane flights was permitted in Germany until the mid-1990s, and smoking is still not banned on all charter flights. The risk of cardiovascular disease mortality for male and female air crew was surprisingly low (reaching statistical significance among women)."
http://www.forces.org/evidence/files/lin...
http://forces.org/News_Portal/news_viewe...
PASSIVE SMOKING: An Institutional Problem – Fabricated Risks Attributed to Passive Smoking
The majority of people, however, are not be fully aware of the absurd mechanisms by which imaginary numbers are created that are supposed to indicate a risk, and from which “deaths” are then extrapolated. Many bright folks who intuitively reject hysterical notions about passive smoking are at the same time insecure about their “qualifications” to “understand” the technicalities and extent of this epidemiological scam so – very much like those on the other side who “hate” smoking and “believe in” the health authorities – these common-sense doubters make an “act of faith” in trusting those who say that the purported dangers of passive smoking are demonstrably bogus.
In reality, it does not take any particular qualification. In this audio-video file that lasts only 13 minutes, everyone can understand the incredible level of incompetence of politicians and bureaucrats, but especially the profound corruption of the health “authorities” who push prohibition and segregation while they are fully aware that any and all studies on ETS are a scam – regardless of their results.
In this short documentary we show you how and why, so you can have a better understanding of your position when you defend the right to smoke – and also a better perspective on the tremendous injustice you are a victim of when you have to step out into the cold to have a cigarette. You will be even more aware of the institutional corruption of the “authorities” to which mass-media profusely cater to fight a war that is indeed ideological, but that it is certainly NOT based on any science.
Nobody has ever died of ETS exposure and nobody ever will. With this documentary you will have the means to educate others and explain the fraud, so that others in turn will educate more people. It is the only way, as sold-out mass media would never denounce health authorities on the basis of the antismoking scam.
The copyright on this documentary is waived, and the files are made available: http://www.forces.org/Multimedia_Portal/...
I boycott placed that allow smoking. That means that I'll never eat at the Food Factory again. There are many places that allow for a pleasant meal. Try the Taco King for a superior meal over the Food Factory.
I boycott places that allow smoking. That means that I'll never eat at the Food Factory again. There are many places that allow for a pleasant meal. Try the Taco King for a superior meal over the Food Factory.
I do agree with the SHS, but I also choose NOT to go to places that allow smoking, but if I do, I have no room to complain. I have found that the smoke triggers severe migrains for me, and I suffer through them if I place myself in that position. NO ONE ELSE!
I agree with the smell, it is nasty, but then again, if you can smell the person, I highly doubt it is ONLY cigerette smoke you smell, but just a nasty person who has no personal hygien habits. I also don't date men who smoke, as I have no desire to kiss an ashtray.
Find a new place to eat, LOTS better places to eat then FF.
I agree with this letter to the editor. My family enjoys Food Factory, regardless of the advice given above, we will still be customers of this restaurant. We choose to get our food 'to go' more often.
My young daughter has asthma that is triggered by a number of stimulants including cigarette smoke. I have to think ahead when going into grocery stores, family and native gatherings, and restaurants. Before having my child, I didn't care about where smokers smoked. I did mind smelling bad when being around a smoker, but it's the smokers own choice to hurt their lungs. My daughter does not have a choice in what triggers her asthma and now I do care where smokers smoke.
Fairbanks Memorial Hospital is now a smoke-free campus, California has a new law that smokers cannot smoke in the same car as a child, and other numerous other statistics are proof that smoking cigarettes and being around people who are smoking cigarettes is just not safe.
I urge all restaurants and stores in the Fairbanks Borough to go to a smoke free campus like the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, and Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center.
Let the free market decide. If there's enough call for it, all businesses will go non-smoking. Until then, getting food to go from a smoking tolerant restaurant is a wonderful compromise. I won't go to non-smoking places, you won't go to smoking places. Sounds fair to me.
I'm tired of losing my freedoms in the name of Political Correctness. There's a reason I live in Fairbanks and not in the Liberal Nightmare of California. I urge everyone who cannot allow others their freedoms to move to California. You'll be welcomed there.