Dear stupid people smoking inside the bus shelter:

[pnwmom]

78. You example is completely beside the point. The point is that

cigarette smoke is often confined in a room -- unlike auto emissions -- or otherwise in-your-face (as in, outdoors in a bus kiosk). No sane person sticks their face up to a car exhaust and breathes in the direct fumes.

But until we had indoor smoking laws, sane people had to breathe in fumes from smokers in small, confined places like offices, restaurants, and airplanes. And we still have to deal with smokers emitting their gases at face level, clustered near door openings and crowded under bus kiosks.


http://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20040823/smoking-worse-than-exhaust-for-air-pollution


Aug. 23, 2004 -- Three cigarettes can cause more air pollution than a diesel car's exhaust, according to an Italian study.

The study compared levels of air pollution particles produced by cigarettes with those coming from a late-model "eco-diesel" engine. The research team was led by Giovanni Invernizzi of the Tobacco Control Unit of Italy's National Cancer Institute.

Environmental tobacco smoke is a contributor of air pollution particles. These fine particles are a risk factor for chronic lung disease which can be debilitating and sometimes fatal. They can lead to conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema, and are also a risk for lung cancer, write the researchers.

The test was conducted in the small, northern Italian mountain town of Chiavenna, which has unusually low outdoor levels of air pollution.

The experiment was conducted in a closed, private garage with six small vents, which were kept open during the experiment in accordance with Italian law.

SNIP