There are bigger polluters than smokers

Several years ago when the Village of Arlington Heights followed Chicago in banning cigarette smoking in restaurants and bars, a citizen of Arlington Heights approached the Board and suggested that separate space be provided for smokers and nonsmokers in the same facility.

I wrote a letter to the Fence Post suggesting that if restaurants and bars ban smokers, why not also ask apartment owners to ban smokers? With one heating and cooling facility, all residents are affected, and now you have it, Nancy Faris (9/12/08).

Smokers do not have the right to share the same space with nonsmokers, but are permitted to blow smoke into the already contaminated air caused by carbon dioxide emissions of industry, which, in 2004, spewed 1,617 million tons into the atmosphere, which smokers and nonsmokers breathe in inside and outside of their homes.

Cigarette smoke has contributed a minuscule of the carbon dioxide in the air, but railing against smokers is easier than taking down coal-burning industries. The effort "looks good."

Monica L. Zabor

Arlington Heights