You Know What Yanks My Cord …

Inconsiderate smokers.

I am not here speaking of smokers in general. Many smokers are very considerate people who just have a rather unhealthy habit.

The smokers I am talking about are those who get in my way with their smoking. I think most of you frequently have had such experiences.

Walking out of the library doors, I often find myself immediately flanked by smokers (right outside the doors, not at the bottom of the steps) who, from both sides of me, blow smoke in my face.

When smokers gather together in front of doors that a large amount of people use, they share the smoke they are inhaling. Smoke that contains tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide, among other chemicals (including carcinogenic ones), according to the Lung Association.

Now, I know that a brief two-second encounter with smokers every once in a while is probably not going to give me cancer, but it is still really disgusting to think of inhaling that garbage, especially after it has left another person’s body.
Furthermore, someone with really severe asthma could be sensitive to this smoke, so for their sake smokers should find more considerate places to smoke.

This is not even to mention that many non-smokers (who have not become desensitized like their smoking brethren) find cigarette smoke disgusting.
I would like to suggest that smokers try smoking in an open area, like the green space between the library and the seminary.

The secluded corner of a parking lot would work well too. Heck, in a busy parking lot, the cigarette smoke might just blend in with the exhaust fumes.

In closing, when you are on campus and feel the need to reach into your pack of smokes with your yellowed fingers, please think of others before lighting up and — hold on a second… COUGH, COUGH — keep your fumes to yourself.