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Even the producers of my favorite
guilty pleasure reality TV
shows, “America’s Next Top Model,”
resorted to setting up a photo
shoot displaying the various diseases
that smoking causes and the
horrible side effects of the habit.
If these were one-time occurrences,
chances are that I wouldn’t
be writing these words.
But smokers are bombarded
every day by informative, factboasting,
anti-smoking propaganda
telling us that we’re all going
to die.
So one could imagine my disappointment
when I walk up to
a Shoreline Community College
smoking shelter and see the inner
walls plastered with paintings
with images of skeletons smoking
cigarettes
Don’t get me wrong, I’m an art
student here at SCC–I appreciate
talent at work, and those panels
are extremely well done-kudos to
the artist.
However, the five foot by eight
foot area where the school allows
me to smoke my cigarettes isn’t
where I want to see them.
Is the common opinion of nonsmoking
folk that people who
smoke tobacco are just less receptive?
I appreciate the care that goes
into the massive media campaigns
devoted to telling smokers something
they already know, but
doesn’t it seem just a smidge unbalanced
when looking at the big
picture?
There aren’t panels of art
placed over the Cup o’ Noodles
vending machines in the lounge
or the bookstore showing people
who have high blood pressure or
heart disease caused by the huge
amounts of sodium.
There aren’t panels of art near
the soda machines with images of
oozing, peptic ulcers from all the
excess stomach acid produced
from caffeine consumption. (Hey,
caffeine is a legal drug consumed
in mass just like tobacco.)
While we’re on the subject of
obvious information, why aren’t
there images of people in casts
lining every hill or staircase?
Those are detrimental to your
health too.
Let’s keep the anti-smoking
propaganda out of the smoking
areas. If the smokers on SCC’s
campus are at least smart enough
to be in college, let’s assume that
they can make their own decisions
about their health.
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