The presence of a bunch of adults dedicated to abstaining from alcohol and drugs might seem like an unusual source of blight -- but some Los Angeles City Council members say that it poses a real threat to the quality of life in many neighborhoods.Come on. This is talking about second-hand smoke in an outdoor environmen, subject to considerable wafts. But it's simple common sense that no outdoor area is going to be so inundated with 2nd-hand smoke as to render its use impossible. You don't even need meters to measure this -- it's prima facie absurd.
An influx of sober-living homes has so affected some areas, city officials say, that children can't play outside in the evening because of second-hand smoke from recovering addicts' cigarettes and the adult nature of their 12-step conversations in backyards.
So why does the LA City Council get to get away with this. And why does the press let them?
I wonder. I've been allergic to tobacco all my life, and I'll have the itchy eyes and runny/stuffy nose for a quarter of an hour before I can actually smell tobacco smoke.
ReplyDeleteI imagine its other effects also start at very low levels.
How much does it take per day of second hand smoke to toggle that 'attractive' perception?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080808123144.htm
Or more cynically, if the tobacco companies weren't working so hard
http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/91/11/1749
and so long and so effectively toward defeating restrictions on second hand smoke, I wouldn't be so suspicious that it serves as one route to addiction for some youngsters.
What else are they about, really?
I know. But I just wonder.