The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

One columnist stops smoking this week; 21,000 kids begin

By Ingrid McCleary

This is my first column as a nonsmoker. I doubt you'll notice the difference in my writing style, though my sense of humor is definitely off. The difference is in the parts you don't see: the creation, the research, the editing. These parts require focus, something I've sorely missed these last four weeks because every waking moment has been spent battling a 27-year habit.

As I write this, the issue of smoking is making headline news. Will the tobacco companies pay the medical bills caused by cigarette-related diseases? Will citizens give up the right to class-action suits in the future?

Dr. Dean Edell, a nationally known radio and TV doctor, has often remarked that cigarette smokers have been unfairly targeted. Although he abhors smoking and the damage it causes, he points out that more people die from heart disease by eating too much fat and from lack of exercise than from smoking.

I recall him saying that cigarette smokers are five times more likely than nonsmokers to die of heart disease; obese people, 10 times. Does that mean that anyone who's more than 20 percent overweight should pay higher medical premiums?

Smokers pay more for car insurance because they take their hands off the wheel more often; their attention isn't on the road as often. Using that same criterion, shouldn't cell-phone users pay more, too?

I think there is a prejudice against smokers, but there's no getting around it--smoking is bad for you and for those around you.

However, I also feel most people have shortcomings that require the assistance and tolerance of others. The flaw could be with alcohol and drug use, lack of exercise, poor eating habits, genetic traits, environmental living conditions, abstract things like slow reaction times when operating a vehicle or simple clumsiness that lands people in the hospital more often than the norm. Even thrill-seekers and athletes take their toll in medical bills.

Just as the employed foot the bill for welfare recipients, nonsmokers foot the bill for smokers, healthy people for unhealthy people, parents for minors, citizens for illegal aliens. That's life in the U.S. That's part of belonging to the community.

I began smoking as a teenager, a time of peer pressure, of experimenting, of pushing my boundaries. At first, I smoked sporadically and could easily quit. The addiction hadn't set in. In fact, I quit every New Year's for a few months. But it got harder every year. And five years ago, when I gave it a concentrated effort, it was clear that I'd become mentally and physically addicted to cigarettes. I only lasted six weeks before succumbing.

That's when I told my children, "This may sound hypocritical, but please don't start smoking. You've heard all the medical reasons for not smoking, but what you don't know is how hard it is to stop. I'd rather go through labor again than go through nicotine withdrawal."

We didn't know about the hazards of smoking 25 years ago. Now we do. Yet every week, 21,000 American children begin to smoke, out of which approximately 7,000 will become addicted.

I drive by Washington Park and see teenagers smoking on the benches. I come out of Coco's Family Restaurant on Mary Avenue and see kids smoking in the parking lot. Kids as young as 12, standing by the front door at the 7-Eleven on Remington Avenue or the Speedee Mart on Hollenbeck, have asked me to buy them cigarettes. Others loiter around Starbucks Coffee on El Camino and "borrow" cigarettes.

The other day, I saw one of my daughter's old friends smoking on the corner. The sight saddened me because even in this era, when warnings are everywhere, when television commercials for cigarettes were banned long ago, it doesn't stop him, just as it doesn't stop the 3,000 other kids who start smoking every day.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 2, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.