Thanks to the wise and farsighted actions of the Beltrami County Board, we can now go out to dinner or listen to music without being contaminated by a persistent blue haze of smoke and chemicals. Having accomplished that goal locally, it's now time to push for a statewide ban in all restaurants and bars, as the most direct way of preserving public health in Minnesota.
The tobacco industry continues to peddle its deadly products, but it's increasingly apparent that cigarettes are not good for us and neither is secondhand smoke! Smokers frequently seem amazed when they end up with throat and lung cancer, but it's no wonder lungs become blackened and hearts stop beating after repeated exposure. In slowly puffing away on a cigarette, one directly inhales fumes and exhaust from a very efficient little chimney, one unfortunately giving off hazardous byproducts leading to heart and pulmonary disease: vinyl chloride, dimenthlhydrazine, lead, naphthalene, butane, methane, nicotine, mercury, ammonia, chromium, benzene, arsenic, nickel, nitrosamines, polonium-210, nitric oxide, cadmium, glycerol, acetylene, phenol, hydrogen cyanide, aluminum, argon, vinlypyridine, carbon monoxide, copper, nitrosonomicotine, isoprene, urethane, carbon sulfide, titanium, methylamineethychrysene and DDT.
Statewide legislation will not only create smoke-free environments in all public places, but also preserve individual freedom -- to be free from smoke molecules and carcinogens (cancer-producing substances). So celebrate what the Beltrami County Board has accomplished! Be glad you can dine out and breathe fresh air, and write your state representative, supporting such a thorough-going and comprehensive statewide ban.
Shep Wilimek
Bemidji
