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Smokers still searching for peace; Nonsmokers still searching for dec air
FF SMITH/ I mi. BaTFALION
BY MELISSA PANTANO
The Battalion
A student just gets out of a test.
After putting away her num
ber two pencil, she reaches
into her backpack for that heavenly
cancer stick.
As she lights up, the anxiety
seems to flow out of her body until a
fanatical nonsmoker walks by
coughing and hacking while staring
at her.
Students at A&M have a problem
sharing parking space, let alone air
space, but smokers and nonsmokers
are still at ends about a common so
lution, with no solution in sight.
Robin Nester, a senior horticulture
. major, said smoking is a way of life.
“It’s a person’s right to smoke,”
Nester said. “People eat unhealthy
foods — they can get cancer or heart
disease that way too.”
Allen Coker, a senior finance ma
jor, said smoking is his prerogative.
“If you don’t like the smoke,
move somewhere else,” Coker said.
“If I want to kill myself slowly, it’s
my business.”
Greg Simmons, a freshman chem
ical engineering major, said smokers
do not really bother him.
“I don’t know what people make
such a big deal about,” Simmons
said. “I’m kind of used to it.”
Simmons said he used to smoke
when he was younger but later quit.
“I didn’t really enjoy it and it was
a costly habit,” he said.
Dr. Ken Phenow, associate med
ical director of Scott and White Clin
ic’s health plan and director of the
Urgent Care Clinic said smoking is a
dangerous habit.
“Young people in general think
that they are immortal,” Phenow
said. “Their health is good, and un
til something comes and knocks you
over the head, people aren’t going to
think differently.”
“People don’t understand that
smoking will hurt their health,” Phe
now said. “You hear cancer or heart
disease but don’t listen. Unless you
have seen someone die of emphyse
ma, you can’t understand.”
If you don't like the
smoke, move some
where else."
— Allen Coker
smoker
But some smokers think that there
are worse demons than the “Marl
boro Man.”
“People make a lot of choices,”
Nester said. “Smoking is not the
worst one you can make. I’d rather
smoke a pack of cigarettes than drink
and drive.”
There are many different theories
as to why people start the habit.
“College-aged kids usually start
smoking because of one of three rea
sons,” Phenow said. “Either because
their parents smoked, secondly be
cause they have addictive personal
ities or thirdly new studies show that
there might be a genetic tendency
for some people to take more risks
than others.
“The trend in recent years has been
that more college-aged women have
started smoking,” Phenow said. “Also,
more women are starting to die from
the smoking related diseases that used
to be seen as only affecting males. ”
Nester said she started smoking
because of peer pressure.
“It started as a social thing,”
Nester said “I just wanted to see
what the big deal was.”
The main barrier between smok
ers and nonsmokers is fear of sec
ondhand smoke.
Phenow said nonsmokers can in
hale the same amount smokers do
in certain situations.
“If a nonsmoker sits in a bar,
from lets say 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.
they would have inhaled enough
secondhand smoke as if they would
have smoked five or six cigarettes
themselves. The number and the
damage increases if the nonsmoker
is sitting around smokers.”
Nester said she has had some
people overreact when she was
smoking in public.
“Once, I was smoking outside a
store where I worked with some
friends of mine,” Nester said.
“A woman walked out of the
store, coughing, covering her
mouth with her shirt and being re
ally obnoxious about the fact she
didn’t appreciate that we were
smoking around her. Then, she got
into her old diesel Mercedes, rolled
down the windows and practically
blew everyone else away with her
exhaust.”
Simmons said recent laws passed
in California that ban smoking in
doors are appropriate.
“I don’t like getting smoke blown
all over me while I’m eating,” Sim
mons said.
Nester said she reserves her right
to smoke in public, despite what
others might think.
“Forget that,” Nester said. “I like
to smoke when 1 drink.”
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