February 19, 2003

The air is really cleaner. No butts about it

If you're a teenager, especially a teen who's spent your life in California, you probably take breathing smoke-free air pretty much for granted. If you're in a California theater, restaurant, or enclosed shopping mall, you expect to see clearly to the far side. In our restaurants there's no longer need to confront those at the next table and beg them not to pollute the air you're about to breathe. If you're dining out with your small children, you can be confident your babies will probably not cough and hack from a smoker's thoughtlessness.

It's ironic there may be some real health benefits from marijuana, an illegal substance, but I know of none at all from tobacco, which is legal. Mind you, if you smoke, in private, I have no objection. These days I easily detect the reek of stale tobacco as I pass by a person who usually smokes, even when we're out in the open and there's no cigarette in sight. I wish they'd find a way to quit, but I won't force the issue as long as their smoking isn't done indoors in a public place.

I'm rather bitter about the tobacco industry, which profited handsomely from addicting my Dad for so many decades. Dad took full responsibility for his smoking and the resulting emphysema that made his last years a living hell. He was wrong. It was nowhere near being just his responsibility. He didn't fully realize how much his smoking addiction resulted from outside pressures. Would he have started smoking (at 14) in 1921 if it wasn't made to seem macho and fashionable? Would he have continued so many decades without relentless pressure from advertising, merchandising and the pressures from his addiction? Probably not.

As recently as ten years ago there were clever and sophisticated campaigns to persuade people to smoke and to seduce non-smokers into tolerating it. I felt like a spy in enemy country when I signed up under a false name to receive free issues of a tobacco company magazine. I realized what they hoped to achieve when I got a letter from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, addressed to my nom de plume at a post office box.

"Dear (my false name)

Do you know something we don't? I think it's likely! You may even know about anti-smoking proposals that threaten your most cherished freedoms.

If you do, I urge you to alert us!

You see, here at the Smoker's Rights Action Line, we try hard to keep up with the issues affecting smokers. We scan the horizon for emerging anti-smoker threats ­ at the local, state and federal levels. But we can't be everywhere at once. We can't see inside every city-council chamber or county board room. We can't learn of every anti-smoking plan the very moment it comes up.

That's why we count on youŠ.

As I write, the foes of freedom are gearing up for a big offensive in your home state. They'll be pushing their intolerent agenda harder than everŠ"

I am damn proud of my part in promoting that "intolerent agenda." If I and those like me had only been more active forty years ago fighting the battle against indoor air poison, perhaps my Dad wouldn't have had to spend his final years fighting for every breath day and night. His golden years were blighted by tobacco's yellow stain.

California has led the way, but even here more needs to be done. In Nevada, many other states, and in Europe and Asia, the smoke clouds still hang low and ominous. It took decades to clear California's air, but our success should give hope to those still suffering the blight of tobacco everywhere.

The Reactor's smoke-free e mail address is Paul@thereactor.net. Check his website at www.thereactor.net.