I hate the smell of cigarette smoke.
Thats outside of the fact that secondhand smoke can cause cancer, heart disease, breathing problems, lung infections, EAR INFECTIONS and asthma attacks on people who are exposed to it. (According to ACH and NIC and the American lung association)
I just really dislike the way it smells.
My dad is a multi-pack a day smoker. He may even be up to a carton a day now, or more. I’m not there to count the packs anymore.
I was exposed to secondhand smoke since I was a baby. As a child everyone in my family smoked. There was nowhere I could go where I wasn’t assaulted by that smell, or breathing it in. Not to mention I had so many EAR INFECTIONS as a child and young adult that my hearing has been permanently damaged by it.
Then I got married, and I moved. My hubby doesn’t smoke. My hubby’s family doesn’t smoke. I’ve lived in a smoke free environment for years now, and I’m even more aware of the secondhand smoke in the world than I ever was.
The person who has the locker under mine at work is a smoker. The smell of smoke rises up from his locker. I can’t get into MY locker without breaking in lungfulls of that reek.
There is ONE bench outside the store I work at. ONE. For a while I could go out on my break or lunch and breath outside air. Then the shopping center decided we needed an ashtray outside our store. It is right beside the bench I used to use. Now the bench is always covered with people smoking. So, for 8 to 10 hours a day I can’t go outside for even 15 minutes and get some fresh air, because there is no fresh air. Even if no one is currently sitting there smoking then there is the reek and even smoke coming off the ash tray.
I get occasional motion sickness (worse now that I’m pregnant) when I’m in the car. One way to beat that is for me to open the car window and let the fresh air blow into my face. Of course, if I do this I run a high risk of breathing in a lungfull of smoke from the car beside or in front of mine.
Oh, and lets not forget the time someone flicked their cigarette butt, still lit, out of their window, where it blew into my car, INTO MY LAP, leaving me a nice sized and very painful burn on my leg. They have ash trays in your car for a reason. USE THEM. Don’t want to get it dirty? Tough cookies, smoking s YOUR dirty habit, not mine.
Some customers at work will come up and smell so strongly of cigarette smoke that I have to wonder if they’ve ever taken a bath, changed clothes, or brushed their teeth in their life. Since I’ve gotten pregnant I’ve literally gaged while trying to help these people because the reek was unbearable. PLENTY of people who work with me smoke, and only one of them (the guy with the locker under mine) smells like that. My boss smokes several cigarettes a day at work and doesn’t smell like that, even when he first comes in from having a smoke!
So, first and foremost I hate the smell of cigarette smoke.
Just think that if my favorite perfume smelled a bit like skunk spray. I’m sure you woudln’t want me to wear it in public, espically aroudn you, right? Well, same concept applies.
Then, there is suddenly new reasons for me to dislike smoking. I mean, whatever damage from the 19 years living with my multi-pack father has already been done to me, but now I’m pregnant.
And since I’m pregnant its even more important for me to avoid the unavoidable.
See, all the life threatening chemicals that smokers are breathing into their lungs, are also being force fed to non-smokers breathing in their second hand smoke. So every lungful of secondhand smoke I breath in is also full of such things as the following:
- arsenic (a heavy metal toxin)
- benzene (a chemical found in gasoline)
- beryllium (a toxic metal)
- cadmium (a metal used in batteries)
- chromium (a metallic element)
- ethylene oxide (a chemical used to sterilize medical devices)
- nickel (a metallic element)
- polonium–210 (a chemical element that gives off radiation)
- vinyl chloride (a toxic substance used in plastics manufacture)
And thats just a sample, not all of what companies are adding to their tobacco.
Oh, and thats not just what I’m getting in MY body, but is currently also going into the body of my UNBORN BABY. I’m not even taking asprin for my headaches and have switched to decaff coffee for crying out loud, I certainly don’t want to be exposed to stuff like that!
So smoke. Smoke in your home, I have the option of not goign there. Smoke in your car, but keep your window rolled up so that I don’t have to deal with it, and please quit trying to set me on fire.
Smoke in designated smoking areas that I can avoid.
Oh, and for my place of business…I would really appreciate a non-smoking bench outside. One where I can get out of the madhouse and get some fresh, non smoke flavored air. It comes in handy since because of the morning sickness I spend large ammounts of time at work these days feeling like I want to yark on the customers feet and could really use the otherwise nonexistant fresh air.
I don’t know if its just my pregnant hormones making me unreasonable, or if he’s finally just gotten on my LAST nerve, but I’ve had it up to HERE with my labrador.
