World No Tobacco Day

Today is World No Tobacco Day, with 147 nations signing on to Global Voices For A Smokefree World Principles document. The U.S. which has both a White House and Congress that receives huge tobacco lobby political donations have so far refused to sign this important international agreement.

Tobacco smoke is one of most dangerous forms of unnecessary air pollution, where one cigarette smoked on a public street or other public place spoils thousands of gallons of air with illegal toxins such as cadmuim, nickel and other dangerous substances that are violate Federal Clean Rules, yet the U.S. government has failed to enforce these laws against cigarette companies or individual smokers. Secondhand cigarette smoke also comprises a form of criminal assault on nonsmokers, causing fatal asthma attacks, nervous system effects on both adults and children because tobacco smoke contains a drug, nicotine, that destroys REM sleep, causes inner ear infection known as Otis Media, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in small infants, bloody sinus infections, burning ear, mouth, throat and lug pain due to it's irritant qualities, and other physical injuries. Yet assault laws are almost never enforced against tobacco companies or individual smokers.

Cigarettes are also the most common form of litter and cost society huge amounts to clean up the environmental damage done by careless smoker caused fires in grasslands and forests. Smokers also cause at least 30,000 residential or business fires each year, taking over 800 lives a year.

One of the largest markets for cigarettes is among the mentally ill. An estimated 80% of persons diagnosed with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia are believed to be smokers, compared with only about 19% of the general population. Mentally ill persons tend to smoke to self medicate because of anxiety or other mental or emotional disturbances.

For years tobacco companies falsely portrayed smoking with attractive models, when it really turns out that very poor persons with mental illness or drug or alcohol problems are often those most likely to be the persons who smoke. Smoking is often a pretty good indicator of mental illness, poverty, drug or alcohol abuse for many persons, as more mainstream persons have quit smoking many years ago when new evidence came out about it's health consequences or the injury iy causes others with secondhand smoke.

Society also needs to recognize how smoking and drinking related illness may be boosting health care costs by as much as 40%. American society loses productivity as well as much higher insurance premiums. Smoking has cost American society far more than terrorism ever has.

With innocent persons daily targeted with secondhand smoke and American society robbed of billions of dollars in needless costs due to smoking, tobacco executives need to be viewed as the worst terrorist threat to America. Like anmy drug peddler, these vermin thrive by hurting their own community in order to profit themselves and live in big homes and drive fancy cars.

The U.S. needs to join the other 147 nations of the world who are members of the agreement to curb tobacco, and get tough with all public place smoking of all types and enforce a zero emissions curb on all tobacco products. Any tobacco product that emits fumes that can impact a nonuser of the product needs to be banned.

Smoking not only pours unregulated and illegal pollution into the air, but is another cause of greenhouse gases and other global pollution problems. A big crackdown on the illegal pollution industry that the cigareete companies have been allowed for too many years needs to change. These death merchants need to be brought to justice for their crimes against innocent victims such as manslaughter convictions for wrongful death of nonusers killed by secondhand smoke, and the illegal pollution they continue to create with no regulation. Some tobacco companies recognize serious or fatal injuries to nonsmokers caused by their products on their company websites, but do not post this information on their product. This makes them legally liable for any injuries or damages to nonsmokers.