At the Bus Bay: An Uncivilized Civilization

At about 8:35pm two nights ago, I sat huddled in my jacket amid frigid temperatures waiting for my 323 bus at the Surrey Central Bus Bay. A woman sat down beside me, and asked “Hey there darling, would you mind if I smoked here?”. I paused for a couple of seconds, before responding. “Actually yeah, if you wouldn’t mind not...” She put the cigarettes back in her purse, smiled and said “Oh not a problem.” After a couple seconds of pondering, I said “Thanks, you know, you’re the first person who’s ever asked me that question at a bus stop.” “What?” She said looking appalled, and turned to her husband; “Nobody’s ever asked him if they shouldn’t smoke around him before” The man responded with a nod and grunt. The woman stared the Surrey central tower and muttered, somewhat to me and somewhat to herself, “I hate this city.”

For the last three months I have been living near south-western surrey, about an eight minute bus ride away from Surrey Central, where I attend Simon Fraser University. Every day on the way home I am treated to people smoking upwind, spitting inches away from me, and overweight teenage moms yelling at their kids. In one other recent case that came to mind: while standing in line for the bus, a 70 something year old white man decided that, after yelling at his wife for five minutes on his cell phone, it would be a great idea to collect a huge ball of spit and deposit it on the ground beside him. A tall black man behind him, disgusted by this, said “Man would you not spit like that sir, it’s really disgusting.” The old man turned around and said “SHUT UP I’m old and I can do whatever the hell I want!” The tall man, somewhat taken aback said “Look I’m just saying that nobody likes it when people do that.” The old man said “I’ll do whatever I want, show me the law that says I can’t spit here.” The argument derailed and fizzled out after a few more bouts. Apparently nobody in all of Surrey knows this, but there is such a law, according to the BC Health Act:

(1) No person shall spit or expectorate upon the floor or upon any other part of any public building, tramcar, railway car or other public conveyance, or otherwise pollute the same by the deposit of sputum thereon.

(2) Any person who violates or commits a breach of the preceding subsection within any public building or tramcar may be forthwith removed and ejected therefrom by any constable or police officer, or by the person or persons in charge of such public building or tramcar.

So why so many times at the sky train station have I seen people expectorating their sputum all about the tracks while the sky train officials do absolutely nothing about it? I don’t know what makes spitting everywhere so irresistible; keeping it in one’s own face seems like a lot less effort than getting rid of it.

Now with the aforementioned law in mind, let’s take a look at public smoking. I have nothing against smoking, people should be able to do whatever they want to their own body, just don’t do it to mine or anybody else’s that isn’t you. It is well known that Tobacco smoke contains hundreds of toxins, the most toxic being (According to a website The Toxins in Cigarettes by Ron Harder) Acetone, Ammonia, Arsenic, Benzene, Benzoapyrene, Butane, Cadmium, Formaldehyde, Lead, Propylene Glycol, and Turpentine. Others include Arolein, Carbon Monoxide, Hydrogen Cyanide, and Toluene, and carcinogenic materials include Tar, Nickel, Creosote, and Polonium 210. Polonium 210 is a radioactive element, and is about 2.5 x 10^11 times as toxic as hydrocyanic acid.

Every day, for about ten minutes on average, I am poisoned by all of the above toxins against my will by other people. So why is there no law against this? The reason is squeamishness on behalf of politicians; according to findings by Statistics Canada. If smoking is made is made illegal in public, where would smokers smoke? It would raise the amount of smoking at home, thereby endangering the health of other family members. Obviously it would be impossible to make smoking completely illegal. History in the United States has shown us Prohibition doesn’t work. If people need their fix, they’ll find a way to get it. According to Statistics Canada, as of 2007 around 25% of the male adult population smokes, as well as 21% of females (these stats are excluding the territories). So for all these people, the only place they would have left is their home, which would pose a much greater health risk to their families. So the issue is brought to a stalemate, where it has been perpetually poked and prodded by politicians from all sides of the political spectrum. The only realistic solution would be designated smoking areas, preferably ones that are well ventilated.

In the end the onus falls on those who show this disrespect for the public place to realize the impact of what they do, but that doesn’t seem likely. I am sure that if I went outside right now and asked some all of the people to stop smoking and spitting everywhere I would get at least one fist in my face and a shiv in my kidneys. So I would instead call for local transit authorities to impose stronger enforcement of smoking regulations, and the laws about spitting. It is degrading and damaging to a society’s image that this lack of civilized manners and class can continue unchecked. I am one of many who are sick of these poisoned public environments.

Bibliography

Harder, R. (n.d.). THE TOXINS IN CIGARETTES. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from http://www.curezone.com/art/read.asp?ID=4&db=12&C0=1

Sanitary Regulations. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2009, from http://www.bclaws.ca/Recon/document/freeside/--%20h%20--/health%20act%20%20rsbc%201996%20%20c.%20179/05_regulations/22_142_59.xml

Smoking bans: Influence on smoking prevalence: Findings. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2009, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2006008/article/smoking-tabac/4060723-eng.htm

What does tobacco smoke consist of? - the harmful chemicals, toxins and substances found in cigarette smoke.. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2009, from http://www.helpwithsmoking.com/passive-smoking/contents-of-tobacco-smoke.php