Why is smoking outside of buildings still an issue? There are smokers, there are non-smokers, and then there are anti-smokers. I admit I fall into the latter category.
I am thrilled with each new tax and law making smoking more inconvenient and expensive and I publicly admit my hope that some day cigarettes are outlawed. The roots of my distaste for the habit probably go back to when I was a waitress in the “old days.” I dreaded the nights when I would come in and see my name scrawled over the smoking section. Not only did I have to breathe second-hand smoke and have my hair smell like an ashtray, but the tips were bad too. Luckily the restaurant where I worked led the way when it came to eliminating the smoking section, greatly reducing my exposure to second-hand smoke.
I felt my satisfaction would be complete when, on Jan. 1, 2008, Alberta banned smoking province-wide in public buildings and workplaces, and relegated smokers to a distance of at least 5 metres away from doors, windows and air intakes. So why, 16 months later, was I subject to indignant yelling and swearing when I pointed that out to the lady standing under the awning outside of my five-month-old’s doctor’s office, less than two metres from the door? You could argue (as she did) that I should mind my own business. But I will tell you (as I told her) that it is my business, and everyone else’s business when a law like this is blatantly ignored. I am sick of being polite and having my rights trampled. Today, I stood up for my right and my son’s right to enter and leave a public building without having to make the decision between holding my breath or breathing in an inconsiderate smoker’s noxious fumes.
I will acknowledge that many smokers do follow the law and abstain from smoking within the prescribed distance, and for this, I thank you. But for those of you who continue to smoke within five metres of the doors of the businesses and offices that I visit, from now on I will politely inform you of your mistake and I hope that others (non-smokers and smokers alike) join me in standing up to the inconsiderate few who are giving you all a bad rap.
A final note: smoking in your car with a small child and the windows up is also wrong for so many reasons, but this is a subject for another time.
Name withheld by request, St. Albert
