It is incredibly upsetting as to how many smokers I've noticed since moving to Sydney. Granted, I know that any big city or college campus is going to have smokers, and plenty of them, but ti seems likely that I've spotted more smokers than ever. Perhaps I should explain that smoking is a pet peeve of mine; I tend to be that girl who wags her finger and and whips out lung cancer and death rate facts.
I understand that smoking is very addictive and that it's a personal choice, which is fine-- however, nothing infuriates me more than when smokers forcibly share their vice with the rest of us, via secondhand smoke. Come on guys, is it too much to ask for you to refrain from smoking in public places such as bus stops, crowded street corners, or outdoor events? Let's have a little consideration for those of us who don't want to be strapped to an oxygen tank at age 45 or that would like to go for a run without wheezing.
This isn't coming out of nowhere; I have a very long communte to my internship here at ActNow, and I spend a lot of time waiting at bus stops (this is partially due to the infallible tendency of Sydney buses to never show up on time, wither being fairly early or very late, and never consistently-- but don't get me started on that). This morning, as I waited for my bus (which was rapidly approaching the fifteen minutes late bench mark), I counted no less than nine smokers that strolled past the bus stop, blowing fumes into the faces of those sitting and waiting at the stop. In addition to this, two passengers within the stop itself deemed it an excellent time to light up, filling the stop with toxic fumes. One girl even tossed her still burning cigarette, without stamping it out, into the middle of the stop as she boarded the bus-- so that it continued to puff at the rest of us long after she was gone.
It's not like any of us can get up and go search for fresh air; we have to sit and wait in hopes that our bus may actually show up. And it's not like we're hurting anyone else, as we sit on the bench and mind our own business. So would it be too much to ask for you to not smoke at a bus stop? Or to venture a few steps downwind so that at least some of the smoke disperses anywhere that isn't directly into our previously undamaged lungs? Because while we're not doing anything to hurt you, what you're doing is physically hurting us. But I guess it's just too much to ask.
So to leave you (and because this wouldn't be an anti-smoking rant if I didn't whip out a few statistics) here are a few fun facts about smoking and secondhand smoke:
- 3000 nonsmoking adults die of diseases caused by exposure to secondhand smoke every year.
- Secondhand smoke contains more than 50 cancer-causing chemical compunds, 11 of which are known to be Group 1 carcinogens.
- Smoking is the second leading cause of death worldwide, causing about five million deaths annually. That's a human life lost every eight seconds.
- Tobacco use is expected to claim one billion lives this century unless serious anti-smoking efforts are made on a global level.
