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

DATE: THURSDAY, November 18, 1993                   TAG: 9311180018
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ray reed
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES, NOT IN FOOD

Shouldn't these areas be off-limits to smokers? J.R., Roanoke

A: No research has been done that suggests a health hazard is created if tobacco smoke gets into food.

That's not to say food doesn't absorb smoke. In fact, smoke gets into all kinds of things: hair, clothing, upholstery, bed linens and, of course, smoked ham.

The key point is, tobacco smoke's dangerous properties enter the body through the lungs and not the stomach, as far as scientists know.

Health officials don't allow smoking in food-preparation areas because people's fingers would constantly go to their mouths, said Bill Shires of the Roanoke Health Department.

However, none of the literature available to health inspectors suggests a hazard from airborne smoke's becoming part of a foodstuff and being ingested, Shires said.

If a lot of toxins from smoke were absorbed into food, a person might notice a gastrointestinal reaction, said a doctor in the office of smoking and health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

However, there's a big difference between eating food and the danger from breathing smoke, the CDC doctor said.

One will pass; the other builds up.

Is `redneck' old hat?

Q: What is a redneck? I'm from Pennsylvania and I don't know anything about this, but people around here tell me it refers to a farmer who bends over in his field all day and gets the back of his neck burned.

I always had the impression it was something more than a sunburned neck. G.G., Abingdon

A: Dare we say redneck's a term that's fading away?

Could it yield to political correctness's beneficial aspect, ridding our language of offensive terms?

"Redneck" is averaging about two appearances a month in this newspaper in 1993. That's down from four or five per month a year ago.

Might our social trend to accept people as individuals, instead of categorizing and labeling them, bury not only "redneck" but put-downs such as "tekkies," "suits" and "nerds"?

Some of these can be handy words for describing what people do, but they're terribly limited for identifying who people are.

The definition you were given for redneck comes from the Depression era. In the '60s it came to mean a neck red from anger, and then there was a regrettable tendency to hang "redneck" on almost anyone who didn't go along with cultural change.

This connotation produced a counter-definition from some of its victims: one of honesty, decency, integrity and hard work.

With redneck's meaning belatedly diffused, perhaps its time is past.

a question about something that might affect other people too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.