Guard against airborne toxins

Although not an Occupy protester, I did happen to be sitting downwind last month when some of the hazardous substances hit me in the face. Standing up to run, I held my breath and squinted my eyes to minimize immediate physical effects.

I took the long way around to the upwind side of the man who was standing on the sidewalk, casually applying nasty chemicals to nonviolent people as though they were physical objects. After breathing some clean air, I caught his attention to explain that his tobacco smoke was entering the restaurant on C Street.

Despite being reminded that such actions are prohibited next to openings into buildings (Davis Municipal Code 34.02.010(x)), he had difficulty appreciating why I was standing behind him in the street munching on my hamburger. I had to wait him out before returning to my salad and the table conversation.

For tobacco lovers who care about others but may not realize where your smoke goes, usually it reaches people and places you are looking toward when you instinctively turn to let the cloud drift away from your own face.

A lot of us might be better off if we could have one blast of pepper spray per lifetime in exchange for never having to inhale tobacco toxins. How many people now dying of lung cancer or heart disease would be delighted to make that trade retroactively? The Centers for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov) says we lose more than 1,200 people every day in the USA to tobacco effects, 135 of whom were only bystanders.

There are corporations that prohibit tobacco both indoors and outdoors (e.g. Lockheed-Martin). Even California state prisoners are protected by a total ban, but our forward-thinking town and university remain behind the times.

While briefly passing through Occupy UC Davis a few days after Thanksgiving, I overheard two campers discussing plans to go out and buy combustible tobacco products. Among the multitudes who were outraged by the pepper spray incident, how many others have pondered the glaring irony?

John Whitehead

Davis

Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=112661

Posted by Letters to the Editor on Dec 5 2011.
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