On 3/7/2012 9:00 AM, Hank wrote:
On Mar 6, 10:54 pm, The Daring
wrote:


I'm deathly allergic to tobacco smoke and most people refuse to believe
that I can tell if the car in front of me on the freeway contains a
smoker. That poison is like pepper spray to me. What kind of an idiot
purposely inhales the byproducts of combustion? o_O

TDD

I never heard of anybody dying from an allergy to cigarette smoke. I
couldn't find any link to that info. Got a link?

Hank


Neither have I, (though it seems strange at this late date to have to
prove that smoking is unhealthy).
A quick search turned up articles, mostly in journals that require
registration or subscription payment to view. Most focus on infants and
elderly. One dealt with contact dermatitis in response to cigarette smoke.
But the bigger problem (and the one that seems to be documented) deal
not with direct allergy, but exacerbation of illness in people who have
medical conditions (eg. triggering asthma attacks which may be
life-threatening, people with cardiopulmonary disease, etc.).
I sometimes start to feel sympathetic to smokers, who it seems these
days can't indulge their habit almost anywhere. But the rapidly
increasing body of evidence of health effects of second-hand smoke are
making this more than a simple situation of personal freedom.
I've certainly inhaled my share of second-hand smoke. My dad smoked
heavily for about 35 years. I remember getting carsick as a kid as he
smoked while driving. Although he is still living, he has lost a lobe
of his right lung to cancer.

Steve

--
Mark & Steven Bornfeld DDS
http://www.dentaltwins.com
Brooklyn, NY
718-258-5001