LETTER: Asthma a factor in smoking ban
To the editor:
Before someone else complains about the no-smoking proposal, why don’t we hear from someone who has experience with asthma? Did any of the writers of the previous letters to the editor ever experience an asthma attack triggered by smoke? Did they realize that Cache Valley already has bad air, and so to add cigarette smoke to the already unhealthy air is a recipe for disaster for asthmatics? Did they “research” how many carcinogens and toxins are in secondhand smoke?
Let’s look at a study done at UCSF (a school not known for morals). In 2005, medical researchers there reported “directly measured secondhand smoke exposure appears to be associated with poorer asthma outcomes [than previously thought]. In public health terms, these results support efforts to prohibit smoking in public places.” Do you think that those medical researchers included a ‘moral factor’ in their study when they recommended to ban smoking?
Also, whether or not you agree with the Bear River Health Department quote on secondhand smoke and car exhaust, you can’t argue that secondhand smoke doesn’t contain more than 40 carcinogens according to the American Heart Association (and that’s only ‘known carcinogens’ – there may be more, and that number doesn’t include toxins). You can’t argue that even small exposures don’t do damage. Over a long time, the statistics add up, and if you have the wrong genes, that prolonged exposure-no matter how small-will result in cancer or trigger an asthma attack.
Before anyone complains more about the morals behind banning smoking, try looking at it from the point of view of those with asthma and ‘bad genes.’
Mike Larson