The other night I was witness to a group of young people standing outside 24 Norman St., in the cold, smoking. I had to laugh. It reminded me of an editorial by Robert Moran that ran in the Salem Gazette last week, titled "The state of Smoking in America". Every year, on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, the American Cancer Society encourages American smokers to quit smoking, if not forever, at least for the day. Since there are several smokers living at 24 Norman Street, I thought I would take this opportunity to post a kind of "public service message"and quote some of the statistics about smoking and especially secondhand smoke. Smoking is the most common cause of preventable death. Approximately 450,000 people die from tobacco-related causes each year."According to the National Toxicology Program, there are more than 250 poisonous gases, chemicals and metals in tobacco smoke. Eleven of them are class A carcinogens. By definition, Class A carcinogens are pollutants known to cause cancer in humans.
Research has shown second hand smoke causes cancers and cardiac disease in nonsmokers and is associated with a host of diseases and disabilities. In June, in a lengthy editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, health policy professionals called for a federal ban on smoking in public housing."
Although many of the smokers in the building smoke outside, some do not, and you can smell it clearly in the hallways of the floors that they live on. if you can smell it, then you are being exposed to secondhand smoke. They are not only killing themselves, but they are also killing their neighbors and friends. So how about it? Why not quit? Your lungs will thank you, and if you live in this building, mine will too.
