About time the Valley catches up

To the editor:

I just read Zaz Hollander’s article “Smoking: Butt out in Palmer?” I was so excited to see your byline and actually was watching the news and saw Becky Stoppa speaking out regarding living in a smoke-free community.

Finally, putting a face to the many emails we shared long ago.

As an asthma sufferer, I’ve been waiting for our Valley business establishments to catch up with Anchorage enforcing a smoke-free environment. I simply won’t go to a restaurant that allows customers to smoke and pollute the air I breathe. So, for those business’s that think they will lose money by enforcing a smoke-free ordinance, I wonder if they realize how much business they already lose because of the smoke a customer breathes when entering their establishments and brings home on every item of clothing worn, not to mention the smell in your hair and skin?

It’s sad we’re at the point of listing what establishments allow smoking and which ones encourage breathing freely by voluntarily enforcing a no-smoking policy. I think the strangest of all experiences is when I was taken to the hospital by ambulance and when finally released, my husband and I would have to pass the area where health service employees were taking their break, smoking away, as we searched for our car in the parking lot.

I always wondered about the care I was receiving from personnel that obviously knew the risks of smoking, but continued to take that risk, while I was fighting for my life. So, kudos to your article and I hope to read more from you in the future.

Candy Sims

Palmer