Sunday, October 03, 2004

People who reek of stale cigarette smoke

It's one thing to encounter them immediately after a show at a club, it's quite another for them to sit at an adjacent computer at the library with a tuberculoid-y cough. Nasty.
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous1:25 AM, October 07, 2006

    I agree! And when YOUR hair and clothes pick up that nasty smell too ... but you know what? it's even WORSE living next door to people who byrn wood for their CH and hot water and everything - in copious amounts, day and night - all year ... because then EVERYTHING in YOUR house smells horrible ... even with the windows shut ... and, like cigarette smokers, THEY don't notice after a few years - they even LIKE the air around them to smell of smoke 0 it comforts them - and ruins their lungs, of course - but as for you, well .... they don't care ... they say you are interfering with THEIR rights, etc. ...Even the clothes drying in our basment pick the smoke smell from next-door. Even the air INSIDE our car. Wishe we'd never moved here - I'm very ill now - afdter 4 years of the smoke (almost every one in this valley where we live burns wood - with no restrictions - and whereas they seem able to live with it - and their fags (I've never smoked .... not one) - my lungs can't take it ... I have COPD now .. and some MCS. What a B****R! But, I shall just have to get out of here ... we've been trying to buy another house for ages ... but they all huddle together here - almost nithing without neighbours ... those nice folks who smoke in the restaurants and streets - and offices (little chance that smoking laws will change here for a LONG time - it is embedded in the culture). And why do we put up with it? because of my husband's job .... And have I complained to anyone? You bet! But sans succces - even the doctors didn't believe me when I said my terrible asthma and chronic bronchitis are due to the environmental pollution here (they thoughit it must be a biological allergy ... but I had all the tests ... nothing!. They just put me on steroids ... which I'm hoping to stop one day - once I'm out of here. I'm much better since we tapped up various windows and doors around our house (yes, seriously ...) and since I sadly gave up my job (university lecturer/researcher) because of all the passive smoking there ... and now I try to get as much exercise as I can (but not easy because I wheeze and cough so much). There is always hope - and I still fight it back ... but the topic of SMOKE, cigarettes and wood burning (and diesel fumes, and strong deodorants ...(, well that just sets me off! Very few people seem to make a fuss about all this pollution in our air - I suppose they will one day - one step at a time. So I am very pleased to have come across your comments. I wish you all the best - and I apologise for letting off steam. I hope you have a nice day - wherever you are - I am in the Swiss Jura (yes, Switzerland - renownded for "fresh air" - what a lie! The best bit of propaganda out ..... I suppoe the air on top of the Alps (not near us) is good - but anything has to be comparted to the smoky down in the valleys, the villages - and the cities. Last winter the pollution levels (PM10s and PM2,5) were WAY over the limits here - across Switzerland - for months - we had nothing but thick smelly fog - like an old-fashioned English "pea-souper" in the 1950s. Meterological inversion layer all the time. And what did the authorities do? did they advise people to cut back on the woodburning (as they do in Canada and some parts of US now)? No! they told drivers to go more slowly ... and put the blame on FARM MACHINERY (in winter???). No - I'm afraid wood burning (even "good dry wood" smells awfull to me and my lungs ... and it is STILL toxic even when you can't see much smoke ... and WORSE than cig. smoke actually ...) The authorities are hoping to end mazout burning (CH oil - much the same as diesel - also very nasty in the air ...)- by replacing it all with WOOD BURNERS! They say this is eco-friendly, maintains an appropriate CO2 level - provided trees are replanted - which they can be here - people are NOT told how bad the wood smoke particles are for their LUNGS - esp. babies and those with lung disease. in my opinion there is MASSIVE denial about this problem. And what do they then do? they spray chemicals everywhere to make the air smell nicer! Even our groceries smell of "vanilla pefume" - because the supermarkets are routinely sprayed ... we have to wash it all off before I start wheezing - or else we nip over to France for our shopping (poorer in Alsace, so the shops don't spray?). And when people walk past me in the street, it's like many of them leave a nasty trail of strong deodorant/perfume behind them .. all along the road. My husband hates it too - either we have become extra-sensitive now - or else the folks here are using too much and can no longer smell it. Just like those cigarettes, I suppose. UK (where we come from) is probablyu much the same - and more traffic pollution - but less wood smoke there, I think. Maybe I should go back ... Bye!!!!!!

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