IN THE MAIL: Nonsmokers’ rights trump smokers’ rights

Talk about it

GRAND FORKS — As a UND student and future health care provider, I believe a stronger smoke-free ordinance is not only a necessary and vital step but also the ethical step to take.

Almost every class I’ve taken has taught me about ethics or “doing the right thing.” We know that secondhand smoke contains more than 250 carcinogens and is responsible for more than 38,000 deaths a year. How is it ethical for us to know these horrible risks and side effects yet continue to do nothing about it?

How can knowing a cause of cancer and refusing to do everything possible to protect people from it be “doing the right thing”?

We have put this issue on the back burner for too long. As the Tobacco-Free-Coalition has said, secondhand smoke exposure is a public health hazard that easily is prevented. Smoke-free indoor environments are simple approaches to prevent exposure and harm.

By simply asking smokers to smoke outside and away from public entrances to buildings, we could help prevent the nonsmoking majority (about 82 percent of North Dakotans) from developing several secondhand-smoke-related illnesses.

Sure, to other 18 percent, it might appear that we are infringing on their right to smoke where and when they want to. But what kind of message are we sending to the 82 percent when we refuse to strengthen the current city ordinance? We’re saying we acknowledge the fact that secondhand smoke causes heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, lung cancer and death, but we do not care enough to do anything about it.

It is our duty as a community to do what is best for the lives of our fellow neighbors, family, and friends. If that means telling 18 percent of North Dakotans that they’ll have to step outside to smoke, so be it.

I urge Herald readers to stand up for their own well-being and that of their fellow community members. You have a right to breathe clean air and a right to share your opinion about doing so.

Bengs is a nursing student at UND.

Tags: in the mail, anti-smoking laws, smoke-free legislation, grand forks city council, smokers rights, nonsmokers rights, opinion, health