I recently was at a music festival and one of my biggest annoyances while there was the blatant disregard for people’s personal space. More specifically, people who smoke cigarettes directly in front of other people without asking whether if it’s okay to do so.
I’ve been to a few music festivals and I’m an avid concert goer, so I’ve become accustomed to people smoking cigarettes, but it was this past event that really had me bothered. While I was enjoying my time enjoying the festival, these two girls managed to weasel their way in front of me and the proceeded to smoke in the span of 15 minutes, 6 cigarettes each.
It was in that very moment that I realized that there was a difference between cultures here and those from abroad.
According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2016, 15 out of every 100 adults aged 18 and over reported they smoked cigarettes. Continuously, TheTruth.org (you know the company that runs all those advertisements on tv fighting back against big tobacco) reported that one third of youth smokers will die of a tobacco related disease.
That is so awful to think about.
I have noticed that many of peers have either stopped smoking cigarettes completely or are only social smokers (smoking cigarettes when inebriated at 2 am after a night out), the opposite could be said for those I’ve encountered from other countries.
Last year I ventured to Australia and New Zealand for a period of five weeks. While my travels were absolutely incredible and I got to do and experience things I never thought I would do, the most shocking thing I saw was the amount of young people sucking down cancer sticks. In my opinion, for every 5 “young” people around my age I saw, 3 out of 5 of them had cigarettes in their mouths. I also noticed that overseas, there are not as many “non-smoking” areas or “smoking only” designated areas as there are here in the United States.
While I was at EDC in Las Vegas, there was a large contingent of individuals who hailed from the Asian continent. They were smoking cigarettes like it was going out of style. Day after day, hour after hour, they were lighting up (both to stay awake and also suppress their appetites) and blowing smoking in every which direction. Not once did they even consider where the smoke was being blown or who it might affect.
There is no regard for other people’s comfort, personal space or preferences. To me, the smell of smoke is gross, I have never once thought about smoking a cigarette, and I hate the even smelling like smoke. I have to take at least two showers to get the stench off.
In a blog post from Al-Jazeera America, an overwhelming number of smokers are from Asian immigration populations and the actual inventor of the electronic cigarette is a Chinese medical researcher. According to a 2012 article in the New York Times, this fascination with cigarettes and smoking is rooted in “persistent cultural norms”.
Here in America, smoking has become extremely taboo and laws and public spaces are working to eradicate smoking in public, almost in an effort to shame people into stop smoking.
Furthermore, it’s not even that Asians are the most notorious for lighting up. The Washington Post ran an article in 2012 that showed a map of the world and color coded which countries were the biggest culprits. Turned out it was Russia and Eastern European countries. This doesn’t shock me because in my travels I have found that does hold true.
While it is hard for American establishments to fully ban or prohibit smoking from their premises, it’s even harder for foreign visitors to adhere to our standards. When an individual is addicted to nicotine, it becomes hard for them to stop and they become dependent on it. The same way a drug addict or alcoholic needs to use, people who smoke have similar triggers. The Mayo Clinic states that people who have a nicotine dependence rely on the release of “dopamine” which visits the “reward center of the brain” which in turn causes smokers to smoke more when that dopamine runs out.
It is my hope that over time people will wake up, wise up and stop smoking cigarettes. In the meantime, if you see someone smoking a cigarette directly in your presence, politely tell them to smoke somewhere else and be respectful of those who don’t smoke. Having those conversations may not change their dependence, but may make them more cognizant of their surrounds. If worse comes to worse, it serves as a moment to shame them for having a less than pleasant and unhealthy habit.
Featured image via Pietro Tebaldi on Unsplash
Uhhh.. 6 cigarettes in 15 minutes?! Yeah. I don’t think so. Are they taking one or two hits then putting them out and you’re calling that a cigarette? Idc how fast you smoke, that number just isn’t possible.
Smoking in small amounts can actually be quite beneficial. It’s only if you overdo it it becomes unhealthy. I only smoke when I’m driving and always with the window rolled down. I only smoke when I’m starting to pull out from a parking space and drive thru and out of a parking lot from a place after I get done or when I’m about to pull into and drive through a parking lot at a place before I get out of my car . Smoking helps me to calm and relax as I start driving or when I’m about to get out of my car to do something like shopping. Having the windows rolled down makes it so the car doesn’t get filled with smoke or the smell of smoke or into the passengers faces. I don’t smoke anywhere else or any other time.