Sunday, October 23, 2005

The World is NOT a Giant Ashtray

Why does it seem to me that smokers think the entire world is their own personal ashtray? Even though there are two polished silver standing ashtrays just outside the door where I enter work each day, cigarette butts are still scattered all around. Does smoking destroy a person's ability to aim or their concern about litter? A co-worker of mine who smokes has a decided proclivity for dragging me outside with him for his smoke breaks. One day while outside for a "smoking-break-meeting", I watched a maintenance person with a large broom spend several minutes cleaning up the mess of butts littered all around the ground. My smoker buddy hits the can pretty often, but there is no excuse for not hitting it 100% of the time. If you miss, Pick It UP And Try Again! Other butts are far away from the ashcans, as if the smoker thought he had some God-given right to scatter butts where he may. Maybe someday science will be able to tell us why smokers think they can scatter their ashes and butts anywhere they want.

Designated Smoking Areas (DSA's)

Restaurants

Although many laws have been passed regarding who, what, where, when, and how smokers can indulge themselves, there is much more to be done. No DSA should be in a path traveled by non-smokers. One restaurant, which I no longer frequent, has its non-smoking section in the BACK, its DSA up front. The hostess gladly escorts me through the smoking section (which I am trying to avoid) to get me to my non-smoking section. Public access walkways and non-smoking sections should all be placed where there is NEVER a requirement to walk through a DSA.

The Work Place

Many DSA's are right next to entry doors, requiring non-smokers to pass through the trash and second-hand smoke to get to their destination. Let's change the law to require that DSA's be at least 50 feet away from public access walkways. Make the smokers stand far away from everyone else while they poison themselves. This area should be definitively marked off and strategically located so that even wind-driven second-hand smoke is not a factor.

Medical Campuses

In the same way that there is zero-tolerance for smoking on the grounds of public school campuses, a zero-tolerance smoking ban should also be in place for entire medical campuses. There should be no such thing as a DSA anywhere on, in, or around medical facilities. In the same way that the school principal has to cross the street to smoke, so should the heart surgeon. It has been proven that second-hand smoke exacerbates many medical conditions. Sick or injured people coming to a medical facility should have the right to hygienic environs, free of all known toxins. Smoking in these locales should not be permitted under any circumstances.

Special Accommodations for Smokers

While at Fort Knox several years ago picking my son up from basic training, I noticed a sign in one of their "Designated Smoking Buildings" (DSB) that said "The Ground Is Not A Giant Ashtray". The DSB was a metal bus-stop-like enclosure painted military green. Every DSB I saw was at least 100 feet from any other building, and they were spotless. This means that anyone who wanted to smoke on base had to go out of their way to find a DSB and had to clean up after themselves. A laudable effort. I would discourage all companies from building shelters, lean-to's, out-buildings, or anything of the like to accommodate smokers. Paint a simple circle on the ground, downwind from all buildings, and require that smokers stand there to smoke in rain or snow or dark of night. Maybe if we make smoking ever more inconvenient, we can even save some lives while we clean up the trash too.