Letter to the Senator

April 14, 2005

Dear Senator Rod Smith and Governor Jeb Bush,

My name is Joanna Maranhao and I am currently a student at the University of Florida. I am enrolled in a Tobacco Awareness class and one of our assignments is to write a local or state representative and either support or criticize a recent tobacco regulation. I am writing you to voice my support for the addendum to the Florida Clean Air Act that bans smoking in restaurants.

I think this law is positive for several reasons. First and foremost, this law creates a safe and healthy breathing environment not only for the patrons of the restaurants but for the workers as well. There are countless studies that show the harmful qualities of second hand smoke, which contains up to 4000 different toxins. And this law lowers my and every other patron’s exposure to these toxins. It also lowers the exposure of those who work in the service industry. And with the rising costs of health care, this act will help reduce the costs businesses pay for their employees’ health coverage.

Also, and just as importantly, this law lowers the exposure of smoking in general. With restrictions on tobacco advertising on television and billboards, the youth of our state are receiving less positive images of smoking; and this law also lowers the exposure children have to seeing people smoking. Any law that discourages children to smoke in any way is a necessary step.

All of Florida is safer from the effects of second hand smoke with this bill being signed into law. And as one of those people who is able to breathe cleaner air in restaurants, I want to say thank you.

Sincerely,



Joanna Maranhao

"Smoking Advertisement"

You think that you use cigarettes, but cigarettes use you.

I have posted this ad on a posterboard at Turlington, in front of Sledd Hall, and in front of Library West. These are high traffic areas and also where lots of people take their smoke breaks.

I like this picture because the cigarette is bigger than the person, which illustratess that people do not control cigarettes; they are actually controlled by cigarettes. The large cigarette looming over the person also illustrates how dominating the smoking habit is. Cigarettes are all encompassing in the way they control a smoker's moods, behavior, and lifestyle. And with the burnt out match representing a person (or a smoker), this picture perfectly illustrates how cigarettes use the people who smoke them: they destroy your entire body.

“Pro-smoking section”

http://www.forces.org/
FORCES is an “organization dedicated to stopping the anti-smoking agenda in whatever form it may take. FORCES fights ordinances and restrictions on the issue of smoking.” One of their claims is that the air on smoking flights is healthier than the air on non-smoking flights: “A plus for all travelers on such flights is that the air cabin quality would, despite the smoke, be much more healthy than that offered on nonsmoking flights. The airlines admit they reduced air circulation as soon as they were ordered to forbid smoking.” However more air circulation does not mean the air is healthier if there are carcinogens floating around. It actually means you will be exposed to more harmful smoke-filled air as it circulates around the plane faster.

Another claim made by FORCES is that non-smoking bars do not improve the health of bar workers: “The headline states that bar workers' health is improving after Ireland banned smoking. The body of the story, however, says no such thing. The Office of Tobacco Control merely finds that tobacco smoke has been removed from the air. Since secondhand smoke has never been shown to harm anyone's health getting rid of a harmless substance cannot ever be shown to improve health.” Obviously they are completely wrong. Second hand smoke has been proven by countless studies to be harmful to ones health, especially non-smokers.


http://www.fujipub.com/fot/
Friends of Tobacco is a “grass-roots organization dedicated to preserving an essential part of America's history and future.” FOT cites a World Health Organization study, which was never published, claiming that there is no link between passive smoking or second hand smoke and lung cancer: “The study is one of the largest ever to look at the link between passive smoking - or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) - and lung cancer, and had been eagerly awaited by medical experts and anti-tobacco groups. Yet, scientists have found that there was no statistical evidence that passive smoking caused lung cancer. Spread the word.” However they do not cite any information from the study and ask its website viewers to “spread the word” about false information. They offer no proof and discount many other studies, like FORCES, that show a link between second hand smoke and cancer.

“Anti-smoking section”

http://www.anti-smoking.org/
This website was founded in 1989 by Patrick Reynolds. He has testified before congress, as well as state and municipal legislatures, trying to get communities to initiate anti-smoking campaigns. His main focus is on youth, and he visits dozens of universities, high schools, and middle schools to “motivate youth to stay tobacco free, and to empower [them] to quit.” He wants to accomplish this by not only talking to young people but also by establishing in-house programs to fight tobacco in schools through websites and school based education programs.

http://www.dontsmoke.com/
This website was made and maintained by an ex-smoker, Shell Silva, who quit smoking 15 years ago. Her goal is to try to offer as many resources she can locate on the web and post them on her site. She also posts many, many success stories from people who have visited her website and quit smoking. Another project of her is to make every day the “Great American Smokeout,” not just November 21 of every year: “You could treat EVERY DAY like it was the GREAT AMERICAN SMOKEOUT and have another 364 days to start quitting!! What a SIMPLISTIC idea! Ya Know sometimes simpler is better.” She then offers to email and correspond with people to give them support in their fight to quit.

I think both of these websites are very good because both people who run them are ex-smokers and they can give support to those who want to quit like they did.

"Functional Assesment of Biting my nails"

I have a nervous habit of biting my nails. I bite my nails when I'm bored, but I also bite my nails before I compete in a swim meet. I bite my nails when I am bored to think of other things; and I bite my nails before a swim meet to clear my head and think about what I have to do in the pool. I know that I do not need to bite my nails to think about what I will do during the race, but biting my nails has become part of my routine before competing that it would hurt my concentration if i quit.

One big difference between my habit and smoking is that biting my nails is not harmful to my health. But another difference is that smoking actually releases chemicals into the brain, but biting my nails does not. A similarity between the habits is that biting my nails, like smoking, helps relieve any stress I have before a meet. And much like smoking, biting my nails has become so ingrained in my routine that quitting would disrupt my functioning. It is repeating cycle of behavior that I do not have the motivation to stop, just like many smokers are not motivated to quit because it would disturb ingrained habits.