Catholic Herald Parenting™

	Lorenz and Friends

Some time ago I wrote a column about the 10 "zero factors" to watch out for when dating. One of the 10 was smoking. I believe I said something about why would you want to start a new life with someone who thinks so little of himself as to commit slow-motion suicide. I should have known I'd get a letter from a smoker about that one.

The gentleman who wrote agreed with the other nine zero factors but thought I was being a little hard on smokers. "What harm does it do if I smoke outside and never in the house? I'm not hurting anyone."

Wrong. In addition to hurting yourself and abusing the amazing body God gave you, you're hurting anyone who is around you inside or outside.

Sidestream smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals. Two hundred of them are poisonous and 43 of them are known to cause cancer. Sidestream smoke kills 53,000 people every year. That's 145 a day, six people every hour.

So, in other words, people who smoke not only kill themselves in huge numbers (over 400,000 deaths a year), they also kill innocent non-smokers.

Remember the number and quote it often to people who smoke anywhere near you: 53,000 people die every year just from sidestream smoke.

Considering these facts, I don't understand why so many restaurants still allow smoking in their establishments. Why is smoking allowed in any public building for that matter?

As a non-smoker who chooses to be a non-smoker because I'm smart enough to read and understand the horrible statistics about the addiction of smoking and what it does to your health and also because I think it truly is the dumbest thing in the world to have a wad of tobacco leaves, chemicals and white paper on fire sticking out of your mouth, I think it's only fair that non-smokers should never, ever have to be subjected to sidestream smoke.

Often in restaurants when I'm seated in the non-smoking section, I can still see and smell smoke drifting into my air space. I feel the same symptoms I used to feel years ago when I'd go out dancing with friends in places where smoke was everywhere. My eyes would water, head and nose would feel stuffed up, my chest would hurt and my breathing became labored. All that and I hadn't even touched a cigarette. It was the sidestream smoke that was killing me.

Why is it that we mourn so long and loud and with such angst when many people lose their lives at one time, in a plane crash, through an act of terrorism or a natural catastrophe such as an earthquake or tornado, yet every day in America smoking kills more people than alcohol, aids, illegal drugs, car accidents, murders and suicides combined, and we certainly don't mourn collectively over those deaths.

In the state of Wisconsin alone, 7,800 people die each year from cigarette smoking. And here's the real kicker. Every single day 3,000 kids in the United States become regular smokers. What they don't know when they light up for the first time is that one-third of them will die of a tobacco-related disease.

Smoking and sidestream smoke cause cancer of the lungs, cervix, larynx, esophagus, bladder, pancreas, kidney and stomach. Smoking and sidestream smoke also cause heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, emphysema, osteoporosis and premature wrinkling to name a few of smoking's gifts to mankind.

If you're a non-smoker and feel the way I do about the disastrous result of smoking and especially resent the fact that smokers still have the right in many places to blow sidestream smoke in our faces, perhaps now is the time -- when in the wake of Sept. 11 -- we've learned the hard way just how short life is anyway, to do something about avoiding the sure-fire ways to die.

I have a no-smoking sign outside my front door. My friends and houseguests know that I don't even like it if you smoke in my yard or driveway. If someone gets in my car and asks, "Do you mind if I smoke?" I always answer, "Yes, I mind. I care about you and me and I don't believe in slow-motion suicide."

My New Year's resolution is to not patronize any restaurants or businesses that allow smoking. Smoking sections in restaurants are a joke. It's time we non-smokers stood up for our right to clean air and a healthful environment.

Goodness, it feels good to get on a soapbox once in a while. Be strong. Remember, 53,000 people die each year because of sidestream smoke. Take a deep breath and then take a stand. We all deserve clean air and better health.

(Lorenz shares her art-of-living words at many professional speaking events and retreats. E-mail her at patricialorenz@juno.com.)