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I am a smoker. I have struggled for years to stop and have done it successfully on occasion, only to succumb to temptation once again. Even though I smoke, I do not enjoy a room where I cannot breath due to second hand smoke. I am the person who will go outside and find a private spot to have a cigarette. Even then I am not impressed by the lack of enclosure to prevent others from inhaling my own bad habit. I can try to hide it, put it behind my back, but the chemicals still filter around and are imposed on the unwilling lungs of others.

I grew up in a smoking environment, both parents smoked, extended family smoked, and there was no where to go to get away from it. I was that child who swore not to smoke because the lack of comfort my environment offered to my lungs. It was in my teens that I gave in, partly to rebel and partly to, in some way, become closer to my distant mother. The reasoning behind it no longer matters as I am addicted now and am one of the millions struggling to stop.
I don't only think that smoking in interior places should be banned, but in other places as well. There should be limits and restrictions to all public places, and the company you keep. I am appalled when I see an adult holding a child's hand and holding a cigarette in the other, the same with pushing a stroller. I feel like taking the cigarette and extinguishing it, but that only causes more problems and does interfere with a persons right to choose how he or she deals with the situation. It is always an option to use words, but most get offended when you pose your opinions on them about an already touchy subject.
Where I live there are few places to smoke indoors. I like this. It not only prevents me from smoking but it creates a safe environment for others to be in. That is until you walk out the exits and inhale the thick cloud from all the people just trying to follow the rules and not considering the impact their actions are having on their potential clients and others, who may be extremely sensitive, or just not enjoy the multitude of chemicals being penetrated into their lungs for quite a distance afterwords.

Learn more about this author, Michelle J.
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