It could kill me. Smoking can cause cancer. If you smoke you don't automatically get it.
Let me start by saying that I am truly sorry about that. My thoughts are with you, your friend and your friends family.
Thank you - I appreciate it.
Thing is I am a very considerate smoker, I dont drop my fag butts on the floor and I only smoke in designated areas.
Which on my part shows that I do have self control. I do not smoke around people that dont smoke.
Granted - do you ever smoke whilst walking down the road? Do you have an awareness that on any given day everything that a smoker exhales drifts down the road either in the direction of the prevailing wind or behind them? There are people in my office block who smoke in the designated area, unfortunately my office being on the 4th floor and the shape of the buildings open area being like a large chimney it call comes straight up and into my office window. I have mentioned this to the building manager (who is also a smoker) and gotten an extremely non committal response - i.e. don't open your window.
You might be the most conscientious smoker on the face of the planet but you can only speak for yourself - not for the vast majority of people that I come across that happily smoke where-ever they legally please and leave their butts all over the ground.
This could be reversed very easily.
You drink and therefore I hold you in contempt, I have seen the damage that alcohol can cause and I have also had to do cpr on a child that had no ribs because of an rta due to a drunk driver.
So I also hold you in contempt because you drink, regardless of the fact that you may well be a responsible drinker.
That is horrible and I feel for you having to deal with that - last Saturday I had to help a drunken bum who had sconned his head on something - blood all over the place - to get an ambulance. I too hold them in contempt, as did the ambulance people who said - "Ah "so and so", he's a regular".
However I would have to bring up a couple of points - in moderation alcohol does not have long term damage to your health especially when combined with a healthy active lifestyle. In excess it is in many ways worse than cigarettes as smoking doesn't cause the horrific road accidents that occur every day, no does it cause people to loose self control and beat their spouses or children. Alcoholism is as much a bane on society as smoking, if not more and I firmly believe that it too should be tackled. There are clearly many people out there who either way don't have the self control or self respect to be able to operate within society when given the availability of these substances.
Now, I know it is hard, but try to take emotion out of it.
The thing is when you take the emotion out of it, you're left with the facts - in no way at any time in any place do the fact leave ANY support for smoking. In a purely factual situation smoking is an intensely illogical thing to be doing. Smokers are
burning chemical soaked tobacco leaf and inhaling some 4000 resulting chemicals of which 50 are known to be carcinogens.
I am very considerate when it comes to smoking. Ultimately it is my choice to smoke. As it is legal I am doing nothing wrong. If I do not let other people breath in my smoke whilst driving then how am I harming others?
Sure - fair call - but you are harming yourself. Is that not an issue?
