To the editor:
I am all in support of a smoking ban near hospital entrances, but I disagree with making ill patients who have a long time addiction to smoking, wheel themselves out into the cold winter night to get thier fix and put themselves into further decline or at risk for secondary health problems.
I am a non-smoker and do not like breathing in second-hand smoke but I have seen first hand sick patients who are already very stressed need that cigarette to calm thier nerves.
The patch does not work for everyone and I understand that non-smokers have no sympathy for the smokers but please try to understand their plight.
The older senior smokers grew up in a different time where smoking was the norm and pushed upon them by the cigarette companies and just because a different generation says to stop, it is not that simple.
Why can the hospital not have a closer area for the smokers that is the back doorway where it is not a high traffic entrance and could affect many people.
I feel there will be more health concerns with ill patients who put themselves at risk due to secondary issues they contract out of the danger to drag themselves out of bed and off medical equipment into the cold night unattended.
Now if having sympathy for the sick and stressed smoker is not your thing, then how about the tax dollars that will be spent because so said patient has now become sicker and needs that bed longer to heal because the patch did not work and they needed to venture outside to de-stress.
Just give them a specific smoking area that gives them dignity, respect and does not put them in harms way. Just my perspective from a hardcore non-smoker.
Laura Morine,
Thunder Bay
