All of us have our bad habits and smoking is one of them.  While smoking is injurious to health of the person who has this habit, what is of more concern is the fact that non smokers are bigger victims than smokers themselves. The areas were non smokers are a victimized lot are given below:-

Smoking in  Buses:-  In general buses are congested.  You hardly get an inch of air in buses and often you are find sweating.  In this atmosphere just imagine somebody smoking.  While it adds to the heat, already prevalent in the bus, you are also forced to exhale air into your bodies which is much more harmful. While people do smoke in trains also, it does not affect in the same proportion as in buses.

Smoking in Public Places:- In congested public areas like theatres, bus stops, railway stations and shopping malls, people are liberally found smoking.  The non smokers have to bear the brunt of inhaling smoke.

Smoking in Air Conditioned Rooms:- In air conditioned offices rooms are closed to prevent air from coming in so as to maintain the cooling effects.  Already when a person is suffering from being kept out of natural hours from natural air, what is the point in a smoker further contaminating the atmosphere release smoke from his cigarette. The side effects of air conditioning on health is very well known to people and inhaling smoke only aggravates to the problems.

Exhaling smoke directly to a persons face in closed cabins:- It is common among colleagues to sit together and crack jokes at workplaces especially when there is not much of work.  In some cases a group of about half a dozen people sit in a small closed cabin and crack jokes.  It is observed many a time that when a person smokes the other person receives it directly on his face.  In case of close friendships some of them exhale the air directly to the opposite persons face.

I do not smoke but I am not against smoking.  While smoking affects a person directly as it is injurious to the health of the person, it also has indirect long term consequences to the family members, more so if he is the only bread winner of the family.  Smoking  actually affects non smokers more as they directly inhale the air when they do no wish to.  When a person is very close to you, you can ask him to exhale the smoke somewhere also, but sometimes you are under compulsions especially when the person is much elder to you and you treat him with respect or admiration, or if your superior smokes in front of you.  In this context it is very important for the smoker to show some maturity in trying to understand the concerns of non smokers and smoke in a areas which does not affect the non smoker.

While every bad habit affects us, smoking affects others more and please keep that in mind.

Regards

Satish

not against smoking