alt.support.non-smokers Frequently Asked Questions
Robert Broughton
Posting-Frequency: quarterly
Last modified: 2006/01/04
URL: http://airspace.bc.ca/content/view/19
Maintainer: Robert Broughton (mailto:b...@broughton.ca)
This is the list of Frequently Asked Questions for the
alt.support.non-smokers newsgroup.
1.I still don't have a smoke-free workplace. Who can I contact for help?
2.I live in an apartment building, and cigaret smoke is coming into my suite
because of people smoking elsewhere in the building. What can I do about it?
3.Who was Wayne MacLaren? How old was he when he died, and what did he die
of?
4.What planet did "Kyoteee" come from?
5.Why does cigarette smoke stink so much?
6.Would any sane person want to spend the last couple of years of their life
with emphysema?
7.Who is Heather Crowe?
8.Why does alt.support.non-smokers attract so
many addicts^H^H^H^H^H^H^Htrolls?
9.How can I respond to trolls?
10.Do trollers have any consideration whatsoever for human beings?
1.I still don't have a smoke-free workplace. Who can I contact for help?
Eastern U.S.: Action on Smoking and Health, http://ash.org
Western U.S.: Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, http://www.no-smoke.org
Eastern Canada: Non-Smokers Rights Association, (416) 928-2900
Western Canada: Action on Smoking and Health, http://www.ash.ca
British Columbia, Canada: AIRSPACE Action on Smoking and Health,
http://airspace.bc.ca
United Kingdom: Action on Smoking and Health, http://www.ash.org.uk
Elsewhere: Try http://airspace.bc.ca/forlinks.html or http://tobacco.org.
2.I live in an apartment building, and cigaret smoke is coming into my suite
because of people smoking elsewhere in the building. What can I do about it?
Two U.S. states, Massachusetts and Utah, have passed legislation that
mandates smoke-free apartment buildings. (The text of Utah's law can be
found at http://www.le.state.ut.us/~1997/bills/sbillint/sb0049s3.htm.)
Communities in Florida and California have passed local regulations
mandating this.
In 1992, the Michigan Attorney General's office announced that it is legal
for apartments to provide smoke-free buildings, or to prohibit smoking in
entire communities. No [Michigan] State or Federal law prohibits it.
Apartment Management companies have refused to provide this because, they
say, that no one asks for smoke-free buildings.
But it wasn't enough. The apartment communities have ignored the ruling and
refused to provide what is an absolute basic need for many people.
If you are bothered by second-hand smoke coming from neighbouring
apartments, you should:
Inform your landlord.
Whenever you go looking for apartments, let the management know that you
want (or need) a smoke-free building.
Write your State Representative and your Congressman
People have the right to breath clean air in their homes, even apartments.
But we must speak out, and demand it. We must inform the apartment
management companies that we require smoke-free buildings, and if they
refuse to listen, then we must demand legislation that forces them to
provide it.
The more people who speak up, they sooner they will start listening. Even
apartment residents have a right to clean air in our homes, including on
balconies and patios.
3.Who was Wayne MacLaren? How old was he when he died, and what did he die
of?
Wayne MacLaren was a model that was used for the Marlboro Man. He died of
lung cancer at the age of 51.
4.What planet did "Kyoteee" (kyo...@mindspring.com, real name: Barbara
Aucoin) come from?
a) Uranus.
b) Waltham, MA.
5.Why does cigarette smoke stink so much?
Nicotine is an irritant; one of its other commercial uses is for rat or
insect poison. Cigarette smoke contains a long list of other chemicals (see
http://www.healthplanning.gov.bc.ca/ttdr/index.html for a list of what's in
major brands sold in Canada). One of them is ammonia, which serves the
purpose of increasing the speed of metabolization of nicotine; in other
words, it gives cigarettes a more powerful "hit".
6.Would any sane person want to spend the last couple of years of their life
with emphysema?
No.
7.Who is Heather Crowe?
Heather Crowe worked as a waitress for 40 years in smoke-filled bars. She is
58 years old, and has terminal lung cancer. She has never been a smoker. She
has been awarded compensation by Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance
Board.
You can read more on this subject at
http://www.smoke-free.ca/heathercrowe/FAQ.htm
8.Why does alt.support.non-smokers attract so many
addicts^H^H^H^H^H^H^Htrolls?
Cigarettes are one of the most addictive drugs on the planet. Any
demographic study of smokers done in North America or Western Europe will
show that their income is below average. So, when the price of cigarettes
goes up, they have little choice but to pay more, and spend less money on
food, clothing, entertainment, and transportation. It's dangerous to stand
between an addict and his or her drug.
Some general discussion of what motivates trolls can be found at
http://www.firelily.com/support/depression/trolls.html or
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/sierra-club/faq/ (see the section on "brown spam").
There is also a class of people who have an interest in the well-being of
the tobacco industry. Not just stockholders, employees, and tobacco farmers,
but also tobacco retailers and employees of charities funded by tobacco
companies. One definition of the word "libertarian" is: "Someone who tries
to make you believe that what's in his best interest is what's in everyone
else's best interest also."
9.How can I respond to trolls?
One way to improve the signal/noise ratio is to use a killfile. Any
worthwhile news reader program has a "kill" or "filter" facility. Use it.
If a troll contains material blatantly contrary to "support.non-smokers",
you can try complaining to the troller's ISP. For example, if the troller's
"From" address is kyo...@erols.com, forward the troll to ab...@erols.com;
for ru...@sympatico.ca, send it to ab...@sympatico.ca; hit...@bigfoot.com
becomes ab...@bigfoot.com. (Also try ab...@newscene.com or ab...@rr.com for
the latter.)
Note that some posters to newsgroups munge their email address, so be sure
to have your newsgroup reader set on "full headers", and then look in the
headers for an "X-Complaints-To:" entry. For example, postings by
10277...@compuserve.com have the line "X-Complaints-To:
newsm...@compuserve.com". If this entry is not present, look at the
"Path:" entry. The ISP where the posting originated will usually be the
second-from-righmost entry in this line.
Postings sometimes contain an "X-Originating-Host" header which is useful.
For example, if the address is 199.60.85.7, an nslookup on this address gives
h857.vic.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca. This is recognizable as a Canadian government
computer. A complaint to postm...@dfo-mpo.gc.ca should be taken seriously.
10.Do trollers have any consideration whatsoever for human beings?
Apparently not. Here's an excerpt from a troll by Audrey Silk
(10277...@compuserve.com): "Don't force your kids on me. Nothing worse
than crying babies in public places and obnoxious toddlers and little kids
whining and running around the place while their parents think it's cute.
Keep them home until they can behave."
--
Bob Broughton
http://broughton.ca/
Vancouver, BC, Canada
"It should be legal for a private maternity ward to permit smoking."
- Chuck Wright, May 22, 2006