Are you Kidding Me?

3rd Hand Smoke: Are You Kidding Me?

You know, I'm a non-smoker. I don't like cigarettes, never have. I'm not against anyone NOT smoking, trying to quit or quitting smoking all together--in fact, if everyone I knew who does smoke, quit, I'd be about the happiest girl in the world--even happier than I am now. I don't like that some people in my life smoke, but that is THEIR business. Yelling at them and harping on them won't make them quit, believe me, I've tried....

I believe that cigarettes are a horrible and nasty habit with dyer consequences; that I won't deny.

But, PA-LEASE...now people are saying that THIRD HAND SMOKE affects us? Are you freaking kidding me? COME ON!

I don't consider myself to be a conspiracy theory kind of person; but I'm really SO FREAKIN' SICK & TIRED of hearing about HOW AWFUL CIGARETTES ARE!!! For the love of God, WE GET IT!

Okay, now SHUT UP and LET US FOCUS ON OTHER (AND OFTEN) BIGGER PROBLEMS!!!!

Cigarettes (and the smoke they produce) are defenately NOT cool, I don't advoate them or their use in any way shape or form; but, I honestly believe that all of this "no smoking" campaign is just a way to DISTRACT US (the little people) from other (also) big and pressing problems!

There a MILLION reasons the air and the environment is bad for us; there are a million other ways we are endangering ourselves and our environment each and every day. There are literally endless reasons for us to be concerned about our health and environment. And there are plenty of other dangers that surround us, besides cigarettes.

For one, ALCAHOL ain't that great either. Drunken drivers kill millions of people a year and millions (yes literally) of ALCAHOLICS destroy their relationships, jobs, families and lives every single day!

The fact that this nation is so freakin' hopped up on one prescription after another is major cause for concern as well.

And, why our country is so vehemently against ANYTHING OTHER THAN MAKING THE RX COMPANIES MORE MONEY (which they don't really need) should ALSO BE CAUSE FOR CONCERN!

I was reading my older entries in this blog a few days and back in 2005, I expressed concern about how overly-medicated this country was, four years later, the problem has gotten much, much worse!

EVERYONE I KNOW is ON SOME KIND OF PRESPRICPTION MEDICINE, myself included. Now, I take an anti-depressant and have medication for my asthma, other than that, I don't take anything. Seriously, though, this is riduclous....

EVERY OTHER COMMERCIAL these days is for SOME KIND OF PRESCRIPTION! You're positively bombarded with commercial after commercial with everyone telling you that you most likely have one of the following: depression, bipolar, heart disease, blocked arteries, hypertension, fibromialgia, diabetes, irratable bowel syndrome, arthritis of some sort, osteopersosis, overly frequent heartburn, GERD, high cholesterol, erectile dysfunction, low estrogen levels, anemia, allergies, chronic fatigue, inability to sleep, insomnia, chronic pain, the possibility of the human papaloma virus, cervical cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, some other type of cancer, mencocal menangytis, etc, etc, etc, etc...the list goes on and on; unforunately, so does the list of SIDE EFFECTS.

The side effects of ALL THESE RX'S is TREMENDOUS. And the list of side effects goes on and on and on. The side effects pretty much give you MORE problems than you had to begin with, so OF COURSE you have take ANOTHER medication to counteract the side effects of the original prescription....that CANNOT be an accident.

We have become victims of complete subliminal messaging.

I'm not saying these diseases are not real, or that there are not millions of people who have them. You're dealing a woman here who had 32 surgeries and knows good and well what real illness looks and feels like. And perscriptions certainly have a purpose and do some good. They're not all horrible. But honestly, I don't think this country, as a whole, is as sick as they would like us to believe we are. And I don't think we're as inidated by our own illnesses as we are by the ones they would like us to believe we have.

Honestly, I think we need to shift our focus in this country; I think medicine and the advocation of not smoking have their place; I really do. I myself would not be alive without Perscription Drugs and modern medicine. So I don't there all that horrible.

I DO, however, think that the "don't smoke/smoking is bad/quit smoking/no smoking" thing has gotten WAY OUT OF HAND! ENOUGH!

People are going to do what they want to do; and you know what, they should be able too!

The hundreds of millions of cars on the road each and every day isn't exactly good for our healthy, lungs or air either!

The toxic wastelands and chemical plants that contantly emit methane and carbon monoxide by the trillions aren't good either. And certainly not healthy!

Why doesn't the AMA and our government start harping on those things? Why don't they punish the major companies who knowingly dispel tons (literally) and tons of toxic gas/waste and pollution into our air each and every day?

With this BILLION DOLLAR AUTO-MAKERBAILOUT THING, why don't they make it contingent on these car companies and ALL AUTO-MAKERS reducing their level of toxic fumes and carbon monoxide? Why don't they DEMAND that these car makers make cars that are REQUIRED to have HIGHER GAS MILEAGE?

I'm not speaking from a "green" standpoint here, although I do believe in "going green."

What I'm saying is that there are TONS OF OTHER THINGS IN THIS COUNTRY, IN OUR AIR, AND IN OUR SOCIETY THAT ARE UNHEALTHY FOR US; THAT ARE KILLING US, SLOWLY BUT SURELY, EACH AND EVERY SINGLE DAY--AND IT'S NOT JUST CIGARETTE'S!!!

And also, people have this little thing called "Free Will," it's just like back in the 1920s when Pro-hibition was going on; millions of people around the country STILL found a way to find, purchase, sell and consume alcahol? I was reading a book about the 1920s recently and believe me, I'm not wrong. Millions around the country still found a way to drink. And people will always find a way to smoke cigarettes if they want to. Because if people really want to drink or smoke, or anything else, they're going to do it; simple as that. And I don't think it's just teenagers who have that "tell me I can't do that, and watch me do it anyway," complex. It's most human beings I know.

Like I said, I hate cigarette smoking, I think it's gross and dirty and yucky. And I KNOW it's unhealthy. I've never lit up a cigarette in my life and I never will. the pure stench of it kept me from it long ago. But, crap, people in the Colonial Days knew it was unhealthy for them, 400 & 500 years ago; they knew it wasn't good for them; but they did it anyway. And the tabacco industry is actually, probably, bigger than ever!

They stopped marketing to kids and selling cigarettes on TV; well, you know what, no one ever got in a car after smoking a cigarette and killed someone. People, do however, get in a car after drinking alcahol and kill people.

I think alchol advertisements should be taken off of TV. There's a lot of them on the TV and I strongly disagree with the way that they make alcahol look "cool, sexy & fun," it isn't. Like everything else, it has its time and place, but it should not be made to look care-free/cool/sexy. Alcahol causes harm to the brain, liver and other functions of the body and it can make someone do really stupid, hurtful, and very much regretful things.

So, aside from alcahol and the over-use of prescription medications and toxic fumes/waste and carbon monoxide levels; there's also the CHEMICALS and PRESERVATIVES in FOOD! WAKE UP, PEOPLE! All of that over-processed, frozen, dehydrated crap isn't healthy either!


We need to be educated about what we eat and what we put in our bodies. I don't believe in blocking out entire food groups (unless you personally decide to do so), but the ingredients list on most things found in the grocery stores today goes on for inches! If the ingredient list is more than ten or twelve long, chances are, it's not that healthy for you! Why aren't we paying attention that, either? Well, we are, a little bit, we are, as a nation becoming more aware of what we put in our bodies. And I have to give kudos to a lot of companies now who are attempting to go the more "pure & natural" route with their products. I commend them.


My point is, all of those preservative laden and chemically produced foods are probably just as bad for us as cigarettes are! Again, if a person wants to eat something, they're going to eat it, regardless of how bad it may be for them, because some people just don't care. Some people figure you only live once so why not do what you want, and eat what you want? And that's fine for them. I'm not one of them, but good for them.

But, it's not just cigarettes that harmful and bad and positively un-healthy.

Anyway, I just had to post about this, because you can see, it got me all fired up. Please feel free to join my discussion here!

In closing, once again, I will say that I don't discount that cigarettes are bad, but really? THIRD HAND SMOKE? Give me a break!

In Light N' Love,
-Sarah Liz :)