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RobertCloud -> RE: Smoking Ban - When is it too much? (1/20/2007 5:41:28 AM)
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Lot's of comments to make on a topic I am coming into very late.
Let's start with the one that someone made about it being against their Constitutional Rights.
Abraham Lincoln stated that any form of prohibition on our personal freedoms was unconstitutional, however he also added that the locations as to using of those personal freedoms could be restricted to protect the lives of others. He knew that some items could be dangerous in a public setting such as alcohol on the highway.
You have a right to drink Alcohol, you do not have a right to be publically intoxicated where you may cause physical harm to yourself or others, and definitely you do not have the right to drink and drive, and excessive alcholism in a household with children is grounds to have the children taken by Child Protective Services. You still have the right to drink, but you could lose your children if you do it excessively in your own home.
When it comes to cigarettes the scientific studies mean very little to me, it is my personal experiences that matter most. My parents come from broken homes, all my grandparents remarries, so I was in some ways fortunate in that I had eight grandparents, and yet I was unfortunate in that I watched six of those eight die from cigarette related illnesses, the other two also died from cigarette related illnesses but my family was estranged from them and I had no contact with them and was spared watching them die. However, I have also watched three uncles and two aunts die from cigarette related illnesses, and I have one uncle right now that stopped smoking ten years ago but it was too late, the damage he had done from a four pack a day habit for forty years was too much. He is on a respirator and will die without it, they do not know how long he has with it. I smoked for two years, I gave up after my second grandparent died. I have not smoked since.
However, for three years I worked for a company that allowed smoking in the work place, and when I came home and opened my briefcase I would go into massive coughing fits from the smell of smoke that my briefcase had picked up at work. I would have to shower immediately and wash my clothes immediately, the smell was that horrendous. Even my pets would not come near me, they would hide, the smoke smell was that bad.
So, though you may have the right to smoke, and I support your right. I also support the right of the government to restrict the locations so that those who are not smokers are not subjected to the dangers of the second-hand smoke.
BTW want to speak of dangers... My father was exposed to second hand smoke as an infant, he suffers from sleep apnea, his doctor while trying to determine the cause, due to the fact he has NO OTHER reasons to be a candidate, narrowed it down to that one fact.
I too was exposed as an infant, and I too have it. SID syndrome is not the only thing you may give your child, you could give him sleep apnea which left untreated could kill your child at an early age in his adult life. Even if he never smokes or is never around second hand smoke again in his entire life. Just that exposure as a child can do that damage to him/her. Sleep apnea has been on the rise significantly in children born since the 40's when the cigarette companies began adding the chemicals to their products, before that when it was pure tobacco, the problem was almost unheard of.
Now, seatbelts... lol... Seatbelts in three accidents I have been in I have been told by the doctors and the police that they did little to save my life, what actually saved my life was my body size, and the truth was that the seatbelts actually did me more harm than good.
Accident number one, the seatbelt locking mechanism broke and I slid up through the seatbelt my head slamming into the roof of the car. I have had a single constant headache every day since for over 20 years, not multiple headaches, but one headache that varies in intensity based on stress or other factors but it never goes away. Had I not been wearing a seatbelt my size I would have been thrown forward but the air bag would have prevented any damage at all.
Accident number two, the seatbelt cut across my shoulder as we were t-boned when a lady ran a red light, the seat belt was actually responsible for the separation of my shoulder and also part of the reason I had to be cut out of the car for the locking mechanism jammed. Had the car caught on fire I would have died. Had I not been wearing the seatbelt I had had time when seeing the car coming to move and would have not been damaged as severely, again the airbags would have saved me from most of the damage.
Accident number three, a rearend, the seatbelt locking mechanism again failed and I slid into the driver's well, both my legs suffered compression damage. Had I not been wearing the seat belt I would have just been thrown forward into the airbag.
So yes, I am very hesitant to put on my seatbelt except when I go onto highway driving. I do most of the time, and I have lost 125 pounds since my heaviest, and 50 pounds since the last auto accident, but still after three serious accidents and the only serious accidents I have been in, and in all three the seatbelts failed, I am truly hesitant to trust them.
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