Anti-smoking bill must pass

To the editor,

It is imperative that Senate Bill 1, which would prohibit smoking in public workplaces across Alaska, be passed.

When I was in college I started smoking. It seemed so glamorous, so cool, so almost exotic. Most of the Hollywood movie stars smoked. If there was any one saying anything about smoking not being good for you, it was so quiet that I did not hear it.

Later I became a teacher at a local high school. One of my fellow teachers, an older woman, was hospitalized with emphysema. The hospital was an hour’s drive away and there was no smoking allowed in her room. While I was there, a nurse came in and told my friend to lie down backwards across the bed so that her head was hanging down one side. She looked so grey, tired, and miserable, as the material in her lungs came down her throat. It was awful to see my friend feeling so miserable. I wanted to have a cigarette right away. As we left I realized that I was willing to drive for over an hour for only a 5-minute visit, because I wanted a cigarette so badly. On the way home I made a vow to stop smoking there and then.

When we got home I asked my husband to go in the house and clean out everything that was related to smoking. It took a week to stop wanting to smoke and months to feel comfortable about not smoking. No one had ever told me that smoking could be so very addictive.

When I moved to Alaska in the early 1980’s I worked in the Hill building where smoking was allowed. I had to be in a conference room with smokers or lose my job. Every year I would be hospitalized for bronchitis, but I had no idea why until newspapers and magazines began to write about the effects of second-hand smoke. As an older adult I now have asthma, which I never had before.

When we are young we believe that we will live forever and are invincible. Only as we get older do we learn the truth. We need to protect those who are forced to work in places that allow smoking. I ask our legislators to pass a statewide smoke-free workplace law this legislative session to protect the health of all Alaskans.

Panthea Redwood

Palmer