Smoking at Airventure,

[Bill Greenwood]

For "1600VW" who is indignant about smoking bans at EAA.
To address some of the things he writes with much emotion.

1. When these old guys were fighting WWII or even in Korea, medical research was not at the stage it is now. For the last 40 years at least, the medical profession knows without a doubt the smoking causes not only lung cancer but leads to heart disease as well. Chewing tobacco even says right on the can that it causes mouth cancer,and some people even use it as their teeth fall out..After a long fight by the tobacco companies, including even lying to Congress, now it is clear and well known by society that tobacco is poison.
And unlike something which can be harmful in excess, but even a benefit in moderation such as red wine, tobacco is poison from the first use.
So today is different than when the army used to even give out cigs to soldiers.

2. You do no favor to anyone, even an older person, by defending their "right" to use something that is poison.
I never was a smoker, tried it once at 14 and it tasted bad. But doctors say that nicotine is one of the most addicting substances and hardest to break. I feel sorry for those who are controlled by it. If donuts and Dr. Pepper tasted like tobacco I'd be skinnier no doubt.
But some people do quit, and no matter if you have smoked for years, the body can repair some damage short of cancer. It is not too late to improve, or at least to hurt yourself less.I have two friends who are EAA volunteers and I use to joke with them about their smoking. Finally, almost in tears, they said how they'd like to quit but how hard it was. They never gave up and they didn't blame others and have been free of the habit for 10 years now.

3. If a smoker wants to put a hood over his head or do it only in a private closed area, maybe that is one thing.
But that is not how smoking is and has been done. When you look at the grounds around smokers it will be littered with butts. If cigs are so great, let them eat em, not throw them on the ground or out the car window. You don't really see half eaten donuts or cookies all over the place.

4. Most of all, the supposed "right" of a smoker ends when he impinges on anyone else's right to clean air. Does the old guy or anyone else have the right to blow their exhaust on a child or infant in their home or car? It's child abuse, even if it is not done all at once. But if you are addicted enough, you don't, even can't care about others, the only thing important is getting your fix.
If one smokes in an apartment, the smoke can get into others homes also. Even the smell and some of the poison lingers in clothing and carpets and drapes. I don't go inside a local gas station anymore because when I do come out with the stink in my clothes.

5. Certainly all smokers are not "dumb", even smart people can do dumb things, just as they can fly a plane too low or drive a Corvette too fast. But there is certainly a correlation between education levels and smoking.I am pretty sure you are going to find a lot more tobacco use at a motorcycle or Nascar race or tractor pull than at a Stanford event.

6. Our govt. has for almost a century made war on marijuana, a drug which is probably harmless and in some cases even good medicine. This war was probably supported in large part by your old guys, at the same time they and the govt were allowing and even pushing alcohol and tobacco on the public. Not a single adult autopsy ever list the cause of death as directly from marijuana, but our prisons have been full of people that were persecuted for using it. That is finally starting to change. And no,I don't use it or advocate it while flying.

The moral thing for our society to do would be to make all tobacco illegal, growing or selling, as it is known to be the poison that the govt has claimed that pot was.

By the way, I guess you and any of the old guys have the right to not wash your hands before eating, but you don't have the right to do this when it affects others like serving food or doing health care, anytime it would harm others. Same with blowing smoke on people.

[krw920]

I am a current non-smoker. I have not smoked in over 17 years. I quit because I wanted to quit, not a moment before. Unless you truely want to quit, you never will.

EAA grounds has designated smoking areas and I have no problem with people smoking within them. Each of those areas had a butt receptacle, please use it! One thing I cannot tolerate of ANY smoker is to think it is OK to throw your toxic litter any place you feel like it! Ash it out, and put it in your pocket if you have to, but don't throw it out the car window, or randomly on the ground. What gives you the right to litter anyplace you choose? Want to poison yourself? Feel it within your rights to do it, but please, please do it responsibly, in designated areas and clean up after yourself.

And on the flight line? Anybody caught smoking on the flight line should be removed from the grounds! That is just a disaster waiting to happen!

[FlyingRon]

You'll have to define "flight line." The EAA did away with that years ago.

Amusingly, when I was giving rides during the week, one of the pink shirts out on the Runway was smoking a cigar out there. I guess 36L is a designated smoking area.

[miemsed]

Would be nice to breath air without cigarette smoke at Airventure. Smokers force their habits on others at Airventure.

[Kyle Boatright]

I thought this thread was about the beer servers at the SOS tent....

[martymayes]

I thought this thread was about the beer servers at the SOS tent....

According to the Urban Dictionary, that would be spelled smokin'

[1600vw]

Bill the way you make it sound these old folks stand around and blow smoke on people and are just a bunch of old farts. Sorry to bust you here but they are not like you describe, none I know anyway. What about the smoke stack down the street blowing smoke to power our cities or anything using a combustion engine, we need to outlaw all this for this makes everyone sick.

I did not say smoking was not bad. I said if you are outside do as you please. If you don't like it walk away. No one holding a gun to your head making you be there. If you say the smoke travels, will so does exhaust fumes and every other man made crap we put out. You want to ban it all? Or tell everyone what they can do with it, controlling is what it sounds like to me.

Now turn all that around........

[1600vw]

People ban smoking in bars, I say make a bar a smoking bar and if you do not like it don't go. I won't go, but that does not mean others might. Whom am I to say you can not do this nor that, and whom are you? Like I said it sounds controlling.
I was not arguing the effects of smoking but the way people want to tell others what to do and how some view this. We call it the bill of rights some have forgotten we have this.

As for me being old, 53..I guess that's old.

[1600vw]

You'll have to define "flight line." The EAA did away with that years ago.

Amusingly, when I was giving rides during the week, one of the pink shirts out on the Runway was smoking a cigar out there. I guess 36L is a designated smoking area.

Do you think that cigar was worse on your health or the airplane you where setting in? Or the car driving past, or the airplane taxing by you. That cigar was hurting no one but the dude puffing on it. But lets tell him he needs to walk over to an area 50' away and smoke that.

[Bill Greenwood]

To add a little levity to a pretty intense discussion, there is funny skit by the master of understated humor, comedian Bob Newhart.

He portrays the famous English explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh who has just sailed over and discovered and explored Virginia for his Queen Elizabeth. So he phones her up to tell her about his exciting new discovery.
We can only hear one side of the conversation, but it is like this.
'' HI QUEEN, WALTER HERE IN THIS NEW LAND NAMED FOR YOU.
I have discovered a great new crop for you, called tobacco. What is it for you say? No, the cattle won't eat it. No, you
can't make clothes out of it.
What you do is roll some of it into a little tube and then smoke it. No. not like smoked fish. You roll it into a little tube and then put it in your mouth and set it on fire.
That's right, you put it in your mouth and set it on fire.
No, the voyage over was hard, but I don't have fever. And there is still some of the rum left on the ship.
And all the Indians say this tobacco is a great thing. Who, the Indians, the natives say that. Well, no, none of them went to Oxford and they are all savages, but they do seem to want to make us a good deal on this tobacco."