Letter: Smokers take away nonsmokers’ choices

Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.

In David Adams' Dec. 11 letter, he states that smoking is a matter of personal choice. What he doesn't understand is that the "personal choice" of a smoker impacts others by the very nature that smoking cannot be contained so that it only affects the smoker.

Was it my personal choice that made me an asthmatic so that I now have a shortened lifespan? No, it was my mother's personal choice. Was it my kids' personal choice to grow up without a grandmother? No, it was my mother's choice to die at 58 because of lung cancer.

Why should I have to avoid places because of the poisonous clouds that are allowed by (a moronic) law? Bars and casinos are not the only places with the addicts. Try bowling anywhere in this town - if you are a nonsmoker, you will have trouble breathing.

Even going to the store, a restaurant or to an outdoor event, one cannot avoid accidentally inhaling a lung full of poison outside these venues if someone in front of you is smoking without your knowledge. Smoking should be illegal - it is a poison that affects everyone around it . It's only a matter of time before someone sues a smoker for assault.

In closing, consider this: Recent figures say that 3,000 students a day take up smoking, mostly because of peer pressure. The only reason anyone takes up smoking nowadays is to be "cool." Maybe if these addicts believed in themselves before they started smoking as much as they believe in their addictions as adults, we wouldn't have people dying (smokers and nonsmokers alike) before their time.

Dan Heffley, Las Vegas