Hey, I absolutely love this thread. Well done Emily for introducing such good points!
Many of the arguments put across have also been voiced in discussions I have had with close friends on the subject of smoking. I live in England and the anti-smoking laws are not as strict as they are in the States. For example, not all restaurants are non-smoking, although most do have no smoking sections. Also all clubs and pubs allow smoking in them.
In a recent email update that I wrote to my contacts around the world, I specified my desire to stop going to smoky places as of Jan 1 05. Although I love going out drinking with friends, dancing in clubs etc., I had reached a point in my frustration where I could no longer tolerate smoking, and especially my friends who are smoking. In this email, I had 'come out' to some of my contacts that I had CF. The response, since then, has been very encouraging. Since then, 4 of my friends have quit smoking, and two of them have decided to run a half marathon with me in 2 weeks time to raise money for the CF Trust.
I take no prisoners in my arguments against smoking. I have and will continue to alienate people who smoke around me, and worse still, complain about their health. It is nothing short of ignorance not to see that some people have no choice in the health of their lungs (ie. people with CF), so to compound the problem of destroying a perfectly good set of lungs is inexcusable.
Having said this, I have come to appreciate to a far greater extent the problems that smokers face. My intolerance to smoking and my immense concern for my own health has not prevented me from seeing the bigger picture. Smoking is an addiction, and a very difficult one to break. It is not that my close friends who smoke are weak or selfish, because I know they are currently doing all that they can to stop, having better understood my position as a person with CF. But it is more that the addiction is so strong, and that the culture, certainly in Britain, implicitly promotes smoking and poor health. We are a nation of heavy drinkers and with that comes the traditional 'pub' and all its smoky atmosphere. It is important to see that smoking and people who smoke are both enabled and constrained in their actions, not just by their own individual psychological make-up (related to will, strength of mind, selflessness, consideration, etc.), but by the societal structures that they live within. It is easy to point the finger at individuals who smoke and call them selfish, inconsiderate, stupid or whatever, but the reality is that smoking has held a prominent position in society for many many years, and in the past has been promoted implicitly through media representations (in films, music, TV, etc.). Only in the last decade or so (and less in England), has the balance of power shifted towards the non-smoking camp. Changing a culture though does not happen overnight, but will take generations.
So here is hoping that Britain will introduce a no-smoking policy in all indoor public places in the near future and that the anti-smoking message will spread across the world in good time.
Rob
24 w/cf
