h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been amazed and delighted this past week as the Ohio smoking ban went into effect. Although there are no consequences towards those who break the ban until May, most people are abiding by the new law.

Smoking is banned from workplaces, restaurants, bars, and all public buildings. Also, smokers are not permitted to cluster around entrances and exits of the aforementioned places.... instead, they must keep a certain distance.

Ashtrays were quietly removed from my place of w*rk last Thursday morning and haven't been seen since. *smiles broadly* Smokers are bundling up in their warmest coats and braving freezing temperatures for their fix. A nice benefit of this "torture" is that most of them are seriously talking about quitting.


Six months ago, I wouldn't have believed this was possible. I am incredibly grateful.

I'm happy for you, AW

Thank you, Paul.

This is such a great occasion, maybe we could celebrate with a cigar.

I'm incredibly happy too! I couldn't stand the fact that there was still smoking in public places in Ohio. I hadn't had to contend with a smoky bar or restaurant in NY for a long time!

Now if I can just get them to institute a perfume/cologne- free workplace!

Ain't that the truth! When the boss wasn't gassing us out with his smoke, he slathers himself with cologne.

Either way, my lungs have a hissy fit! There's nothing like that nice, constricted, phlegmy feeling.

I love the feeling of great weight on my lungs! Makes me really take notice of the organs I usually ignore!

I'll never forget the horrible old days of smoking in office buildings! At one job, I sat next to a woman that smoked, and she'd put her ashtray behind all of the files to try to keep it from heading my way. I swear, the freakin' smoke would make a 90° turn around those files to hit me in the side of the head!

Oh, and the glorious days before computers when we were using rubber cement, thinner and spray mount! I had a boss that was an expert with the fire extinguisher!

It always amazes me how smokers think that by hiding the cigarette behind their back, the smoke can't possibly bother me, even when they're standing right in front of me - that stuff goes everywhere!

Really glad for you, AW - You and the entire state of Ohio. Maybe this will encourage a few chronic smokers to kick the habit, once and for all!

Very likely some of them *will* quit or cut back.

I'm amazed at the amount of people standing outside on a frigid cold day smoking. It doesn't seem to have made a huge dent in NY. And now, you have to walk through a wall of smoke to get inside! At least I know it's going to be there, and I hold my breath when I approach.

Oh, I know all about the giant clouds of heavy smoke... I've been holding my breath for years while walking through a block-long facility. As little as one breath of lingering smoke could immediately begin to restrict my lungs and cause choking spasms for the next 30-40 minutes. Simple breathing became a major struggle.

My doc tells me that I'm a step below asthma... with reactive airway syndrome. If this is a step below asthma, then I wouldn't want to know what full-blown asthma feels like.

Fortunately, over the years, I managed to get the cooperation of the smokers in the room.... they took it to another area, and an air scrubber was purchased to help clean the air, but neither solution helped much.

I liked the analogy that's been made during the anti-smoking campaign -- "Having a no smoking area in a building is exactly like having a no peeing section in a pool." You don't know how many times I've been tempted to walk up to an annoying smoker and piddle on his pantleg.

The analogy of the no-peeing section in a pool is very apt. Just breathing air in Mexico City is the equivalent (some say) of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day . Just because you can't smell the stuff, it's still in the air. I sometimes wonder why it is that people cluster in the areas with the most polluted air--Los Angeles,
New York, etc.--and not the places like Wyoming that have the smallest populations and the clearest air. Why do we do that? And here I am in Boston, which shows how little I can do to escape it.