Air is our most important
nutrient. We can live only a few minutes without it. We even
have a separate way of ingesting air, through our lungs, in
order to insure a continual supply. For we cannot store air.
Insufficient air, air starvation, quickly leads to brain
injury and death. Polluted air is a common source
of malnutrition. Natural pollution may occur from lightening
caused fires, volcanic eruptions, dust and pollens... Human
made pollution arises from smoke, smog, industrial exhaust,
fumes and dusts, perfumes and radioactivity... We can reduce
and sometimes eliminate these human made pollutants.
Would you allow someone to
sprinkle toxic dirt upon the food on your plate? Probably
not! Yet we continually allow ourselves and others to
pollute our air. Let's take the case of tobacco
smoke. We know that smoking contributes significantly to
about 1000 premature deaths daily in the USA. We also know
that passive "smokers", people, animals and plants who
breathe the exhaust produced by active smokers, are at
higher risk for a shortened and sicker life. Yet some
parents who love their children still pollute their air with
smoke. Some teachers smoke in schools. Yet even today, we
have smoke filled public areas where the air is unfit to
breathe. Should people have the right to
smoke? Absolutely! But the right to clean air, our
most important nutrient, supercedes the rights of smokers to
pollute other people's air. If people choose to smoke, let
them do so outdoors, downwind from non-smokers. Smokers
often have an impaired sense of smell and fail to recognize
the toxicity of the smoke they produce. They are often so
addicted that they become irrational about their
"rights". So what can be done? Individual,
group, social and political action is required to insure the
cleanest possible air. Energy and money expended for this
purpose repays us all with immediate and longer term
dividends. Organize and mobilize
constructive protest to clean up indoor public air.
Cause polluters discomfort by making them aware of their
inconsiderateness.
Influence policy makers who have the power to change the
rules. Boycott situations that allow smoking in confined
places.
Think up additional ways to non-violently bring change.
rev: 9/12/99