But here we are. Back to our regularly scheduled program and you know what's best to come back to? A good ol' Oakville Smokers Club update courtesy of Michael M.:
A gentle breeze wafts by the station - sadly lacking in the familiar cozy aroma of cigarette tar. There is not a scintilla of carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, acrolein, or nitrogen oxides in the air. Nothing much smells of the inviting aroma of wet ashtray.. The ground is mostly unlittered by those cute and friendly cigarette butts that just seem to call out "Hi Neighbour!"
The ol' Hangout of the Oakville GO Smoking Club, which was conveniently located by what used to be (in the "Good Ol' Days") the only non-smoking sign evident at the station, is unstaffed by familiar sight and smell of that sick-stick-sucking coterie of cigarette camaraderie. Gone is "Finger Guy", the "Lunch Pail Swinger", "Mr. Overdressed", and all the other Nicotine Nice Guys 'n' Gals who would gladly and generously share to the last gram all of the 60+ aireborne carcinogens they produced with anyone, even if they were not not asked...especially if they were asked not to....
I took these snaps on a recent morning after a week or two of (relatively) smoke free air around the station. The clubhouse area, as you can see, is abandoned. "El Presidente" and "Safety Guy" have taken up smoking on the fringes of a legal smoking area (the parking lot) far away from where I have to walk. Technically, they are still defying the bylaw, but since I don't have to smell them I can make every welcome effort to forget them.
The GO bus driver on the bus from which I took these pictures remarked that thses guys were standing pretty close to the door of the OT bus, so their smoke was probably wafting into the open door of the bus. I guess this is how they get their jollies for being "rebels". A bit of a bring down from posing and smoking in front of a no smoking sign...
I feel terrible for breaking up that ol'gang and interrupting such a fine tradition... really I do... LOL
I feel terrible for breaking up that ol'gang and interrupting such a fine tradition... really I do... LOL
Here is a nasty tid-bit of info that might (, but probably won't) make people stop smoking. Most tobacco grown in the US (i.e. Players, etc) is grown with radioactive fertilizer, to "give it a sweeter taste". Studies have shown, that ONE PACK of smokes, can contain as MUCH radiation, as having 2000 chest or tooth images done.
ReplyDeleteYUM!
Oh, I forgot to post a link to an article, so smokers can't call "bs".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/sources/tobacco.html
mmmm... toxic-ity goodness.
ReplyDeleteKinda reminds me of "tomacco".
@AllanVS Agreed. When I worked at the Pickering nuclear plant, the Orange Badge training put radiation into context by comparing the exposure within the plant to common sources outside the plant, e.g. chest x-rays. I was amazed at the amount of radiation smokers are exposed to, and I continue to be surprised that anti-smoking campaigns don’t emphasize this aspect more.
ReplyDeleteMy nuclear engineer colleagues also informed me that coal-fired power plants release far more radiation to the environment than nuclear plants. Scientific American ran this article saying the same thing: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste.