A site dedicated to . . . 

E-mail: FullyExpressed@LivingSmokeFree.com

Welcome to LivingSmokeFree.com.  I'm your host--Dave Bedford.  I have been an anti-tobacco activist since I was thirteen (in 1962) when I used to poke pinholes in my parent's cigarettes and write "poison sticks" on their cigarette packages.

I intend to convince you that the practice of inhaling heated and poisonous molecules into one's lungs--just to satisfy a nicotine addiction, is criminal unless the smoker lives as a hermit.   

I'm not only advocating a wholesale ban on smoking in public places but a total ban on the sale of tobacco products and I have created this site to present sufficient evidence to support such a position.  A total ban on the sale of cigarettes is not as drastic as it sounds as 70% of smokers want to quit and many tobacco-challenged smokers invite the opportunity of cigarettes not being widely available. 

I'm hoping to motivate you into taking action in making the sale of tobacco illegal.

Statistically, every group of 14 smokers cause the death of 1 non-smoker.  One out of every two smokers dies due to their smoking habit.  Health Canada reports that 45,000 Canadians die from smoking each year.  Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada report that cigarette smoking in Canada causes between 4,696 and 7,945 non-smoker deaths each year.  Therefore smokers are killing innocent bystanders. 

Why do we let this criminal act continue?

Then there are the fire deaths statistics.  Smoking causes an estimated 30 percent of fire deaths in the United States.  Some 2 million fires occur each year in the United States alone. These fires result in about 5,000 deaths, 54,000 hospitalizations and 1.4 million injuries. The overall cost of fire in the United States, which has been estimated at up to $200 billion a year, represents 1 to 2 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.  

And cigarette butts cause serious environmental pollution.  What happens after that butt gets casually flicked onto the street, nature trail, or beach? Typically wind and rain carry the cigarette into the water supply, where the toxic chemicals the cigarette filter was designed to trap leak out into aquatic ecosystems, threatening the quality of the water and many aquatic lifeforms. Cigarette butts may seem small, but with an estimated 4.5 trillion butts littered every year, the toxic chemicals add up! 

Here are some smoking related pages that I posted on the Web prior to creating LivingSmokeFree.com 

Kids Must Smoke  -- satire at its finest I've been told 

My Submission to the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia Hearing Session  
 
Letter to the Canadian Minister of Health  -- claiming breach of trust causing death of people of Canada 

Pertinent links: 

Health Canada's Second-hand Smoke Health Facts  -- will give you an idea of how bad second-hand smoke really is 

Smokefree Air For Everyone  -- S.A.F.E. is a network of individuals injured or disabled by secondhand smoke.

Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada -- their name says it all.

Class Action Suits in British Columbia -- let's sue tobacco use out of existence
Link: 1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6

Costs of Smoking -- an extensive list of links concerning the costs of smoking

Secondhand smoke in my home -- an example of how to complain about it

FEEDBACK -- email sans names and addresses  
 

Public Notice of Tobacco Sales Suspension from page A15, Vancouver Sun, March 23, 2002

Port Coquitlam store banned from selling tobacco  -- Vancouver Sun, Tuesday, March 26, 2002
 

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