
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 9, 1990                   TAG: 9006110174
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TOBACCO FUMES CAN TRIGGER INSTANT ILLNESS

I WANT to reply to the letter June 3 by I. Warren Simpson. For years I have had a choice: stay home away from cigarette smoke or go out and possibly spend several days sick and even bedridden because I have breathed smoke. I am very allergic to smoke and it triggers my asthma. Cigar and pipe smoke make me very sick immediately.

It's not just a matter that "second-hand smoke" may cause cancer, but there are many more health reasons. Do you know what it is like to breathe so hard that your chest hurts? You feel like a pile of cinderblocks are stacked on your chest and you can't get enough air into your lungs.

Do you know what it's like to have your eyes burning and hurting - or even swelling because of smoke? Do you know what it's like to have your contacts so blurred with smoke that you are unable to see?

Sure, I have a choice. Big choice! My only choice if I wish to avoid cigarette smoke is to stay home.

If I go out - sporting events, eating out, dancing, shopping, etc. - and get sick from the smoke, I may end up spending days off from work and money to help alleviate the symptoms. For one night out, I may spend two or three days in the bed with a migraine headache, nauseated and gasping for breath.

My rights are violated and I suffer the consequences much more than the smoker does. Smoking in public places violates my rights to breathing clean air.

If Simpson and others like him choose to smoke, they should do it somewhere they are hurting themselves and not innocent bystanders. If they want to take a chance of cutting their lives short, that's their business; but if they choose to smoke in public and take a chance of cutting my life short, that's my business!

They should wake up and smell the roses. Chances are they can't because they have lost their sense of smell. CHRISTINE SCHLEICHER BLACKSBURG

by CNB