Ever notice that no one's allergic to automobile exhaust?

Must have something to do with all those chemical additives in cigarettes.

Or maybe no one's allergic to a toxic substance that most people enjoy consuming.

:shrug:

Than a smoker does in a whole day?

You ever notice that?

You want me to quit smoking? Fine. Hell, I would LOVE to be able to quit!

You give up your car, and walk everywhere like me. Deal?

If you run your car in a closed space, it's called a suicide attempt.

Don't get me wrong. I don't give a shit if you smoke or not. Hell, I kind of see it as fair trade. We got smallpox, you get lung cancer. It works out about even, probably. 'Course maybe if you cheese-eaters had listened to us when we tried to show you how to properly use the stuff... Oh well. Too late now!

However, I look at it this way. if I'm in a public gathering, I hold my fart in. Not only do I not want to have my bowels interject a rude exclamation into someone's conversation, I figure most of the other resturaunt patrons can live without catching my drift, if you catch my drift. By the same token that I don't crack 'em out willy-nilly when I feel bloated, common courtesy would tell you to go outside to light up.

It's not that I want you to stop smoking - heavens no, far from it, I figure anyone dumb enough to regularly fill their lungs with toxic fumes needs to keep it up, improve the herd passively - It's that I don't want to smell your vaporous excrements any more than you want to smell mine.

Nicotine is an addictive substance. Many kids play around with cigarettes and some continue on, I don't know why.

But I do know how hard it is to stop smoking. And trying to make people feel bad about something that they truly hate themselves for in the first place is just damned mean.

It reminds me of the Christians and the homosexuals. Most are not homosexuals so they can get a real ego boost when they say that gays are the abomination, not them. In the meantime they are stuffing themselves with food, cheating on the their spouses, lying, stealing. ALL THE KIND OF STUFF YOU CAN HIDE! (well except for the eating but that has become such a big problem in this country the "gluttony" sin will probably be taken out of the new "Conservative Bible")


My father used to bitch about smoking all of his life. When I took up smoking at age 24, (stupid stupid stupid) he would not even talk to me.

But I lived with the man and I know his bitching about smoking and other pet peeves was more about himself than anything else.

And before you ask, no I don't ride city buses, though I RARELY use the PRT.

Also, I want you to avoid vaccines.

It's just that I don't want you to smoke anywhere near me.

.... and leave it run for half an hour so it will be warm inside when they go to leave in full dress and coat?

Ever notice that people in Florida don't go out and start their car so it will be cool a half an hour later?

What's the deal with putting ammonia, salt-peter and formaldehyde into smokes? Didn't know that until earlier this year-- was the straw that broke the Camel's/Marlboro's/Lucy Strike's back for me. Finally quit. Guess I'm a "victim" of the fictitious smoke "Nazi's" I keep hearing about.

But yeah-- auto exhaust can and does trigger allergic reactions. I imagine we don't hear too much about exhaust allergies because unlike smokes, cars have been force fed to us as a de-facto necessity in today's modern consumer society.

http://www.webnat.com/articles/AllergiesChildhood.asp

http://www.allergy.org.uk/allergyinfo.htm

http://www.tripdatabase.com/search/857181

Etc.

@The OP:It's not always an allergic reaction. Cigarettes stink. If you're a smoker, try getting off an airplane after not being able to smoke for 24 hours and kissing a smoker. That's what convinced me.
Even if we are talking allergies, cigarettes and car exhaust are vastly different. This is like telling a kid they don't have a peanut allergy because you SAW them eat that walnut.

Seriously y'all, is the formaldehyde/saltpeter/ammonia thing still kicking around? Ok, let's deal with that then.
Formaldehyde: Car exhaust has it too. So does wood smoke. Anything made of carbon that's being burned is probably going to create a little of the stuff. They're not "putting it in". It's created when the cigarette is burned. There are also trace amounts in the atmosphere.
Saltpeter: If you've ever eaten corned beef, you've eaten saltpeter. It's also present in freaking near any vegetable you get from the supermarket due to being one of the more common fertilizers used on crops. It's not exactly the most toxic substance in the world. It also doesn't make you impotent. I suspect this rumor was started with the same aim in mind as the "(Faygo/Mountain Dew/Mello Yello/etc)shrinks your penis!!!!!1111eleven" memes. Cigarettes do make it more difficult to maintain an erection, but it's not because of saltpeter.
Ammonia: Found in the atmosphere. Found in your body. Scattered over your food while it's being grown. Far more common than you think. So if you're trying to avoid all three, the only method would be starvation/suffocation.
There's a long list of good reasons to not smoke, coupled with there being virtually none to smoke. Formaldehyde, ammonia, and saltpeter aren't even necessary to win that one.

Most of the smoking bans were started by people that were sick to death of rude smokers. Sure some of the bans go too far, but that's what happens when people have to push for ages to get even the smallest amount of change. So "smoke nazis" isn't really accurate. There are people that demand I not smoke in my own home where I live alone. Those people can bugger off. Everyone else I can deal with.

I didn't complain why ammonia et. al. were in my smokes-- merely wondered why. :shrug:

I choke and cough. Both activate my asthma.

:grr:

:silly:

People smoking in the bus shelter? Happens all the time.

the man who had come home from open heart surgery to have neighbors on both sides saturate their yards with bug and weed killers was just imagining his difficulty breathing.
Yard chemicals are sacred.

we chose the outdoor section so we could light up.. It was immediately next to the sidewalk, and the main streets' main intersection, filled with 4 lanes in each direction + turning lanes worth of buses, cars, trucks, etc, all idling though the longest lights I have ever seen..and once out there we saw the "No Smoking" signs..

A few seconds out there made us go back inside and ask for a table.. the exhaust fumes were something else..and yet the NO SMOKING was the "big deal".. :rofl:

or of legislatures trying to outlaw driving in enclosed areas where there's little air circulation. I wonder if they've done studies on the long-term effects on parking attendants who work all day in enclosed garages where car engines pump out fumes. Maybe that will happen when a lot more electric cars are developed and the drivers of the remaining gas-powered cars will get treated like smokers.

huge ventilation systems.
As an electrician I have wired both new garages during construction and retrofitted older underground garages.
Not sure how many states require it but I do know Georgia does.

and the air is so stale it seems like you're inside an abandoned mine. But you know, if air circulation is the issue, they can do that in restaurants and bars with regard to cigarette smoke. I think that even with fans, the auto exhaust fumes are going to be there to an extent.

The problem wasn't allergic reactions so much as it was the fact that car exhaust is heavier than air. So without the ventilation systems you'd end up with a huge reservoir of carbon monoxide that was lower than the area around it. The result being that people would walk into the place and drop like they'd been shot.

At least, exhaust from diesel engines. The insides of my eyelids get covered with bumps and my eyes itch like crazy.

(at least, I am after breathing it 24 hrs/day wafting up from neighbor's apartment)

But, I think they have a right to smoke in their own home.

We love our HEPA air purifier!

BTW, I'm allergic to cats dander. (Sometimes it's heard.) Yet I've lived with cats for nearly 20 years.

Until the 20th century, perfumes were made from natural ingredients derived directly from plants and animals, and as fragrances became cheaper and more widespread, they also became more synthetic.

The National Academy of Sciences reports that 95% of the chemicals used in fragrances today are synthetic compounds derived from petroleum, including known toxins capable of causing cancer, birth defects, central nervous system disorders and allergic reactions.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9682.php

However, tearing out all of my carpet and using only cotton fabric in my home made me symptom free at home.

I'm also allergic to car exhaust and walking in the city requires me to use my inhaler, especially on bad air alert days. Programs like cash for clunkers make me happy. Electric and solar powered cars will make me even happier.

I'm also allergic to cigarette smoke. I have to walk through smokers to get out of the building I work in (which I shouldn't have to because they are designated to smoke further from the entry) but that's okay. I can hold my breath until I get past them. But I can not hold my breath for the mile I have to walk to get to my car pool. So I get the point of this post.

But I have to say that smokers have brought a lot of the regulations and problems on themselves with their "God given right to smoke" attitude. I use to be a smoker and did whatever I could to distance myself from others so they didn't have to share my smoke. I think of it as being respectful. Most smokers, however, like to push the envelope and get up in people's face, and get all bent out of shape because others might not want to suck their smoke. So I have little sympathy for their current plight. They just never have known when to stop with the "woe is me" and "my God given rights" crap long enough to understand that if they kept ignoring the rules that the rules would only continue to get stronger.

You ever notice Bears don't use chairs. That got me wondering...

:toast:

when I go into the asthma clinic to get my own lungs tested later this month.

(Yes, I really am getting tested - my doctor thinks I have a mild case of asthma...)

data for places like LA. Houston and Mexico City?

Why do you think it is higher?

By the way, if I had staid in Mexico City I would have become a statistic and whenever I go to LA (or Mexico City) I have to carry albuterol, and allergy meds.

Why do you think that is?

All I know is that cars can drive up and down my street all day and it never bothers me. But if one person walks along the sidewalk in front of my house with a cigarette, I'm still coughing five minutes later.

I have allergies to a few other things, like perfume, but nothing seems to fill an entire space the way tobacco smoke does, even outdoors. Maybe it has just more fine particles in it, but it doesn't rise and dissipate like ordinary wood smoke. It spreads out at head level, hangs around even after the source moves on, and clings to whatever it touches.

If tobacco smoke could be tagged to fluoresce in bright dayglow green, smokers might realize that they carry a toxic cloud around with them that extends for 20 feet in all directions, trails half a block behind them, oozes into house and car windows as they pass, and coats everything that comes near them.

But of course they don't realize any of these things, so they'd rather call people Nazis for griping about it.

Watching a person go through nicotine withdrawals is just like watching "Trainspotting."
People have to be locked in a padded room where they convulse, vomit and tremble for days.
Some people have even died from quitting smoking.
And the things I have seen people do for cigarettes.
They've sold their children into prostitution, prostituted themselves, broken into their own parents' homes and stolen pawnable items.
Cigarettes are so addictive they have turned people into animals!

Or, actually, maybe not.

I can not do backed up traffic without a headache even with windows rolled up, do not do small outboard motor boats or jet skis as I have been too sick (headache /nausea)from exhaust fumes years ago to ever do either again! Electric mower /blowers in my yard despite the inconvenience,= I've been that way for many many years & I am somebody

Folks do not suck on tail pipes and then blow it in each other's face
Still waiting for a true clean car here!

My doctor tells me it could kill me if I breathed enough of it.

I grew up in a smoking houshold -- had a terrible reaction to smoke as a kid, suffered something fierce in when people were smoking in an enclosed space like a car or apartment. I sometimes had to leave smoking restaurants or bars because my ability to breath was becoming compromised. My reaction consists of severe nasal running and congestion, and trouble breathing. My tolerance has become none existent now -- a few whiffs of smoke can set me off.

I drive a scooter. I drive behind car, truck, and bus exhaust systems every day. I do not have the same reaction at all. :shrug: The only time ai can have trouble is when I am behind an old deisel truck that is spewing exhaust so thick you can see it -- then I have some trouble breathing.

As someone who has had a lifelong response to cigarrette smoke, I can tell you it is very very real.

Willfully ignorant OP.

Prognosis
Symptoms of thromboangiitis obliterans may disappear if the person stops tobacco use. For some, amputation is unavoidable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buerger's_disease

Hope you get it.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4106571&mesg_id=4106571

Deep down inside we're all brothers.

:hug:

ps: Nicotine isn't the only substance that people can be allergic to.

industrialized countries of the world. Air pollution from motor vehicles has been implicated as one of the factors that are responsible for this increase. Epidemiological studies carried out in different geographical regions in the world have shown a significant and consistent association between ambient levels of pollutants and increased asthma and rhinitis symptoms. Recent human and animal exposure studies, as well as laboratory-based studies, have demonstrated that diesel particles, ozone and nitrogen dioxide induce an inflammatory response that involves various inflammatory cells, mediators and adhesion molecules, which could contribute to worsening of the allergic disorders ..."

Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology:
February 2001 - Volume 1 - Issue 1 - pp 35-41
Review Article
Pollution and allergic airways disease
Salvi, Sundeep
http://journals.lww.com/co-allergy/Abstract/2001/02000/Pollution_and_allergic_airways_disease.7.aspx

Asthma rates among children are skyrocketing in every Western industrialized urban area. Not in rural areas, though, so one theory has been that early exposure to animals prevents asthma and allergies. Another theory says that industrialized urban areas are "too clean" so that children's immune systems don't get tested.

But wait!

China has growing problems with asthma and allergies, and no one ever accused China of being "too clean." (I've been there.) Nor India, where asthma is also growing in urban areas.

OK, so maybe it's air pollution in general?

But here's another interesting piece of evidence. Eastern Europe has much lower levels of asthma and allergies than Western Europe, and Eastern Europe is notorious for industrial pollution.

But until recently, Eastern Europe had few cars. As did China and India. China in particular is adding cars like crazy.

More evidence: Children living near freeways have higher rates of asthma and allergies. Now think of the lives that many suburban American children lead, strapped into the backseats of cars for long rides on the freeways as they're taken to and from day care, school, and extra-curricular activities. (It's known that the air quality inside a car is poor.)

Some anecdotal evidence: I developed allergies for the first time at the age of six, when we moved from a quiet residential street in Minneapolis to an arterial street in Beloit, Wisconsin that was a major highway. My mother complained about the traffic noise, the steady hum of which lulled me to sleep, but it was about that time that I started to have severe respiratory allergies. Nobody else in the family had ever had them.

I'm convinced that there's a connection between cars and respiratory problems in children.

but whenever i go to Phoenix from Michigan my eyes water and i have a hard time breathing ... it's disgusting to see the smog hanging over the valley when you fly in.

if someone's car exhaust was blowing on me while i was chatting or eating, you bet i'd have a problem with it.

ground level, are VERY hard on people with allergies and other respiratory problems.

Many people suffer on such days. The symptoms are chest pain, coughing, nausea, throat irritation, and congestion. It's not just auto exhaust which causes the problem, but it is one of the things we're asked to avoid contributing to needlessly on those days.

And what's the definition of "need"?

I realize that's a fairly open-ended question so feel free to answer what your personal definition of "needing" a car is.

My definition varies depending on my mood.