http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/strsfs.html
I know this has been done, but I’m pissed. I read the ‘Serlin-Sentinel-whoever’ thread and actually agreed with some of what he raved about in his demented way but this happened to me.
I smoke. I put up with the new crap. Click on the link above and see the real facts about ‘second hand smoke.’ I’ve known about that research for years.
I was out with my aged mother – 73 years old and still full of piss and vinegar and she smokes. She is also – luckily – somewhat hard of hearing. I took her to the public library and on our way out, she lights up in the smoking area by the bike rack by the big ashtray they have there, and by the big signs saying ‘smoking in designated areas only’ - which is where we were. We were walking out, going back to the car. We were outside.
This yuppie chick walks out behind us and goes to unlock her expensive yuppie bike as my mother lights up. So this 30 something bimbo, with stylish corporate short hair, body by the local Gym and just the correct degree of suntan (we must use sunscreen #14 boys and girls because the Sun is Not Our Friend Anymore), looks over at my aged mother, who is minding her own business and having to puff on a cheaper brand of smoke these days and cheerily calls out something like ‘thank you for polluting my space’.
I couldn’t say what I wanted to say because of my mother, who, blissfully, had not heard the comment, but I shot the bitch a glare that should have peeled the paint off of her bike and got this smug, self-righteous grin in return.
Come on people! Mind your own business! I’m careful not to smoke around you except in those areas where I am allowed to do so and I respect your desire not to be bothered by my smoke, but when you are in my zone, shut the fuck up! Just because the television antismoking commercials show people being rude to smokers and making asses out of themselves doesn’t mean you have to.
My aged Mom has a bit of a temper when fucked with. Had she heard the woman, she would no doubt have stopped and told her to get fucked most colorfully. (After all, she raised 4 of us kids and buried my Dad – who also smoked but did not die from a smoking related disease – and had been involved in cub and boy scouts.)
I might have understood if the comment had been directed at me, but not a small, gray haired old woman. I consider that very rude.