The age of cigarettes may be drawing to a close

Thursday, July 13, 2006

San Diego bans smoking at beaches, parks - Yahoo! News

This is a pretty big step for San Diego. It’s one thing to ban indoor smoking, but we haven’t seen too many outdoor smoking bans. The focus of this article, though, is more on the discarded butts than the health hazards. That may be a subtle acknowledgement of the fact that secondhand smoke is unlikely to be too great a danger in huge, wide-open spaces. But it reminds me of my old boss at a summer job in high school. He was a smoker, but he absolutely refused to pitch a butt on the ground. He would twist off the burning end and put it in his pocket until he could throw it away. “It’s my nasty habit, not anyone else’s”. He said.

I wonder how many people would be less adamant about banning smoking if more smokers were as considerate about their habit as he was.

Posted in: health , Health