Breathe Easy

It fills the air. It fills your lungs. It fills you with toxins. It’s the smothering affects of cigarette smoke.

Not only is it a smoker's constitutional right to smoke when and wherever, but most of them believe that smoking relieves stress after a long, hard, drawn-out, day. It’s understandable that people have and deserve their own methods of stress relief without judgment; however the problem arises when those who choose to smoke begin to affect the well being of others who don't smoke.

As I hold the door open for my mom to walk out of IHOP, a smoker and her boyfriend rudely cut us off and barge into the restaurant. Their first act of rudeness was pushing past my mom and me. The second act of rudeness occurred when the perpetrator blew smoke directly into my face.
The nerve!
This smoker has successfully disrespected two individuals while breaking basic civilian rules of thanking someone for holding a door open and apologizing for being rude.

Do smokers realize that they fill the lungs of non-smokers with secondhand smoke?
Better yet, do they care?
According to http://www.cancer.org when smokers exhale cigarette fumes around non-smokers, they automatically force us to become passive smokers, or anyone who suffers all the repercussions of a cigarette without actually using one. Now our constitutional rights are being abused! If I or any other individual want to maintain a pair of healthy smoke-free lungs then we should absolutely have the right to do so. It seems a bit selfish and inconsiderate that non-smokers have to be exposed to toxic carcinogens at the expense of one puff of poisonous air. Everyone knows that the virulent ingredients of a cigarette cause cancer but it has also been linked to stomach, brain and breast cancer.
One puff of air people.
One involuntary action of breathing in and out.

Now this may seem a bit exaggerated but think about it, how often are you exposed to that one puff of cigarette smoke?
How many times do you take a breath around that one cloud of smoke?

While it is a blessing that most of our restaurants are smoke free, there are still people who blow out that last release of smoke as they enter a building. One miniature cloud of cancer may not affect the whole building but it does personally affect one individual.

As we inhale it, the smell of cigarette smoke embeds itself in our hair and the scent weaves its way through our clothes. Sure, we can wash our clothes and hair to get the pungent, clingy smell of smoke out, but who says non-smokers want to go home and shower after every time they go out to eat?
Show a little respect.
We aren't asking smokers to stop smoking. However we ask that they show a little more consideration and polite mannerisms towards the non-smoking crowd. If blowing smoke in someone's face absolutely cannot be avoided at least apologize for forcing them to participate in your nicotine addiction. It would be even better if that last exhale of toxic breath was experienced outside the main entrance of a building in areas like the far reaches of a parking lot or maybe
outside of your car. It may be an inconvenience to a smoker to have to light up outside as opposed to inside the comfort of a cozy restaurant, but cancer is kind of inconvenience for everyone else, maybe smokers should think of that the next time they feel the need to blast an innocent by-stander with that ever present cloud of air known to choke and smother.