Reply #37: As a former resident of [View All]

[drmeow]

both Orange County and Riverside County in CA and a current resident of the Phoenix area - i.e., areas with some of the worst air pollution in the country (the American Lung Association rates Phoenix as the #1 worst air polluted place) - and Phoenix has relatively high smoking rates - I can tell you emphatically that a little bit of cigarette as I walk past someone on the sidewalk does not even come close to the discomfort I have experienced from air pollution.

I drive very little (maybe 3000 miles a year) and I no longer smoke but it is a lot harder for me to get away from air pollution than it is for me to get away from cigarette smoke.

Traffic is substantially more harmful on some many levels than a few smokers. At least tobacco is grown in the US!

Traffic serves very little purpose in NYC which has some of the best public transportation in the US - I know, I lived on Long Island and my sister lives in the City (and, believe me, the fumes from the traffic are far more noxious than those from cigarettes).

You don't live somewhere with a lot of air pollution, do you? Try walking a mile in my shoes before deciding what is an over-the-top comparison. I wasn't asthmatic as a kid but I had difficulty breathing and pain in my chest on high pollution days in CA and in now in Phoenix school kids are kept inside on high pollution days.