Smokers Rights Canada

You’re a cop in Southern California right now, at the height of “Firestorm 2007.” Half a million people have been evacuated and hundreds of homes have been destroyed — and many more are threatened — by the still-mostly-out-of-control wildfires, fanned by winds up to 100 kph. One dead, many injured so far.

You’re about 30 km from the nearest fire, just patrolling on the outskirts of your quiet and relatively small town (which is not in any immediate danger from the fires), trying to live life and do your job as normally as possible when, all of a sudden, you notice the driver of the car in front of you toss a still-smoldering cigarette butt out of his car window.

After somehow ensuring that the hazard has been eliminated (tinder-dry bushes and trees line both sides of the street…and there are high winds), what do you do? After all, you’ve heard that cigarettes are the suspected/known cause of some of the fires but…

Do you ignore it (wouldn’t want to be accused of over-reacting, making a mountain out of a mole hill, etc.)… pretend you didn’t see it and just carry on, like nothing happened? Who would ever know?

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A video by Billy Rood, a.k.a “tantricdemon”:

Delta’s (self-confessed smoker) Joann Hamelin had a letter published in the Friday, Sept. 14 Vancouver Sun entitled, “There are worse habits than smoking.”, regarding Vancouver’s plan to ban smoking on patios, 6 meters from entranceways, etc.

According to Hamelin, vehicle emissions and obesity are “worse” (she conveniently neglects to provide any facts/statistics to back up her claim)…and all of us “anti-smoking activists” are hypocrites.

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Found in a gas bar near Mount Vernon, Washington:

Philip Morris is interested in the welfare of their customers? Well, isn’t that special?

And what could smokers tell Congress that they haven’t already heard from Philip Morris’ army of lobbyists? And couldn’t their marketing wizards have come up with a more original slogan than “enough is enough”?

We can only hope that the time will come when smokers “stand up and speak out”. This will be inconvenient for a corporation that buries their loyal customers.

See the full ad at http://www.tobaccoscam.ucsf.edu/ads/pop_ad_large.cfm?ad=newOrleans

“New Orleans is coming back strong And going smokegree is part of our city’s special welcome.” – Susan Spicer | Bayona & Herbsaint

“If making hospitality smokefree really held back business, the way the tobacco industry has claimed, would Louisiana have gone smokefree right after Hurricane Katrina?

Of course not.

“Coming back from a disaster of that magnitude takes everything you’ve got. No way that you’ll put an obstacle in your own path.”

Louisiana went smokefree on January 1, 2007 because it’s now what people expect. The future is smokefree – nationally and globally. So why not make a fresh start?

“My restaurant Bayona has been smokefree since 1995. Cooking for me is a sensual act: rubbing ingredients together, the association of smells, is all part of the pleasure. Somebody else’s smoke subtracts that dimension.”

“If you’ve never experienced smokefree, it might seem fraught with risk. Once you’ve gone smoke-free, you realize it’s a no-brainer.”

“Recovering from disaster puts things in perspective. You focus on the essentials. In New Orleans, those include the simple human joys, treasured fully.”

Get the facts at TobaccoScam.ucsf.edu

tobaccoscam
Big Tobacco is lying. Again.

A YouTube video by Mike Atrix: Ghetto Science – Smoking. You don’t have to take someone else’s word for this; just try it yourself.

A blog entry on Respectful Insolence, by “Orac”: Blowing smoke over secondhand smoke. Excerpt: “We already know that smoking causes cancer and heart disease; it is thus plausible that exposure to secondhand smoke would be likely to cause cancer as well, just at a decreased rate because of its much lower dose.”

This letter to the editor was published (in a slightly edited form) in the Vancouver Sun on July 16, 2007:

“China the leading source of recalled products” (July 9) raises the question, “When will China itself, as well as Canada, the U.S. and all other supposedly ‘civilized nations’ of the world begin to recall the most defective, disease-causing, debilitating and deadly product of all?

It maims and kills more people than alcohol (including drunk driving), crack, cocaine, heroin, AIDS, homicide, suicide, car accidents and fires, plus all of the 431 Chinese-made products that have been recalled in Canada since 2005…COMBINED!!!

It’s a product which, when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer, currently kills about 5 million people a year. And that figure is expected to double over the next 12 years.

Amazingly, about 65 per cent of all men in China use the product, including 60% of male doctors there.

The product: Tobacco.

Please, join Airspace Action on Smoking and Health — Canada’s leading all-volunteer anti-tobacco organization — in its efforts to, ultimately, totally eradicate the tobacco industry from the face of the planet.

Feel free to laugh at us and say, “It’ll never happen!”

We’ve heard that virtually every step of the way…most notably, just prior to smoking bans in grocery stores, on airlines, in restaurants and bars and, most recently, in multi-unit dwellings (apartments, condos, duplexes, etc.), as well as in parks, on beaches, etc….and, quite frankly, hearing that just inspires us all the more.

Errol E. Povah
Delta, BC

Ed Koch, the former Mayor of New York City, has written this: SMOKE OUT: It’s time to outlaw the manufacture and sale of tobacco products in the U.S..

Excerpt: “Those who use tobacco products should not be deemed criminals, only those who engage in the manufacture and sale of these products.”

The following letter was published, verbatim, in the July, 07 All Point Bulletin (Point Roberts, WA):

Dear Editor:

I try to catch the APB as often as possible, but sometimes it’s a little hit and miss. Such was the case with the June issue: I didn’t come across it until June 10 which was, unfortunately, the day after the “Point Roberts Community LITTER CLEAN-UP” (the ad for it was on page 4).

I would’ve gladly participated in the clean-up had I known about it sooner. That said, I can — with a great deal of certainty — predict what the #1 leading type of litter picked up that day was, by far…and, quite frankly, I’m totally fed up with cleaning up after piggish smokers.

I have no idea what percentage of all smokers fall into the “piggish” category, but how is it that only about 15% of the population is directly responsible for 60%, 70% or more of all litter? And, if I may be so bold, I would suggest that smokers are responsible for most of the ‘non-tobacco-related‘ litter too! After all, those who don’t think twice about tossing (often still-smoldering) butts out of their car windows or onto the street they’re walking along wouldn’t likely be too concerned about tossing any other kind of garbage either (candy/gum/chocolate bar wrappers, etc.).

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