A Small Victory

It's not much of a victory, but after complaints by myself and others concerned about clean air for those with health problems, TriMet the bus service for Portland, Oregon has finally decided to ban smoking in the busstops and fine smokers $94 for smoking violations.

This would appear to be good news. But smokers still have the right to light up and cause severe health problems, injury or even death to nonsmokers with asthma or other health problems by still being allowed to abuse public sidewalks, public streets, store doorway entrances and most other open locations to poison the air with the 4,000 poisons their nicotine drug addiction rude public conduct causes. Smokers can still cause cancers of all type in nonsmokers, including of the tongue, throat, breast and ear infections in those around them by ruining the air that others with health problems count on being good enough to breathe.

Much more work to make smokers accountable for their crimes against nonsmokers are needed. Individual smokers, stores that sell cigarettes or allow parking lot or door entrance smoking, cities that allow public smoking, as well as the cigarette companies all need to agree to a total ban on all public smoking and limit this deadly drug addiction to only the inside of homes of the smokers, or should face negligent personal injury lawsuits.

It is hardly likely that smokers who smoke publicly will stop their dirty public drug addiction conduct. If you ask them nice to please stop, they usually act very rotten, just like a heroin addict being denied their next "fix". Public laws or lawsuits are needed to stop these drug addicts from tearing down the health of nonsmokers and injuring children with ear infections and other injuries. One cigarette could potentially cause several nonsmokers severe asthma attacks, medical costs or even death. If a nonsmoker with asthma is without their inhaler, a severe health crisis caused by a public smoker is more than possible.

Stores should be interested in what's good for business. And allowing smokers to loiter in door areas or parking lots, has caused me to drive away from a Safeway and other parking lots and spend my grocery money elsewhere. Nonsmokers should make stores aware of this. And if no change comes, then lawsuits should come to clean up this unnecessary health threat to nonsmokers.

My mother who is a lifelong nonsmoker has been caused both asthma and now emphysema from secondhand cigarette smoke. She has to pay up to $400 a week in medications and a machine to assist breathing. And I have substantial lung, throat and mouth scarring due to the effects of rheumatoid arthritis and cannot tolerate even breathing of cigarette smoke without severe burning pain in my mouth, tongue, throat and lungs. I'll devote everyday to making life better for nonsmokers with health problems, air cleaner so children can play outside, and bringing this criminal smoking industry to justice, whether through legislation or through lawsuits. I invite many others to also challenge this criminal industry and bring the smoking industry to justice.

This is a moral war to saves lives, save public health injuries and costs, and to stop an industry that profits from immoral injuries and deaths to nonusers of tobacco products who are victimized by this wealthy industry. Nonsmokers have the right to breathe clean air. Smokers and the immoral tobacco industry have no right to take that away.