Editor,

This letter is in response to the Opinion column by Brock Lightstone in the March 12 Daily Lobo. It’s been said there’s
no greater zealot than a convert — whether it be to a religion, jihad or a reformed smoker. I’m not quite sure how much of
Mr. Lightstone’s diatribe was tongue-incheek and how much is legitimate concern.
I smoked less than a pack a day for 37 years and quit in 1982 cold turkey. I really enjoyed smoking. I could smoke at work; I’d take that rst drag, put the cigarette in the ashtray, and by the time I got back to it, more than half of it was ash. Most enjoyable were the cigarettes after a meal, during a coffee break, out at a club or playing cards or a board game. But I had asthma and had been hospitalized several times with severe attacks. I knew smoking exacerbated the asthma, but I closed my mind to that knowledge. Almost 20 years after I quit, I was diagnosed with COPD — chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease. It’s incurable; its disabling effects continue to increase, and I brought it on. This is my second semester at UNM. I’m a senior, non-traditional student, working toward my Bachelor of University Studies degree.
Many readers of the Daily Lobo may have seen me, or bumped into me — literally— on the Smith Plaza, in the SUB, Zimmerman Library and various classrooms. I’m that little old lady toting a liquid oxygen tank belted round my waist, or carrying a larger tank in a backpack. I’m the one who’s liable to stop unexpectedly and stand stock still, causing others, especially those intent on their cell phones or iPods, or whizzing around on their skateboards, to make hasty detours around me to avoid collision. Secondhand smoke is as harmful to lung tissue as smoking itself. Every time I’m exposed to it, I try to hold my breath. Trouble is, my lungs have been so damaged I can neither take in enough oxygen nor hold it in long
enough to get past the smoker(s). I hate having my hair and clothes stink of stale cigarette smoke. I resent having to lug oxygen with me wherever I go, but I can’t do without it. When I suddenly stop in the middle of mostly pedestrian traffic on campus, it’s not to admire the scenery or architecture; it’s so I can inhale enough oxygen to traverse another 50 feet.
Most college students are on tight budgets. Smokers, think how much cash you’ll free up if you quit now, especially considering the new tax on each pack of cigarettes going into e ect July 1. Most of all, think how much healthier you’ll be if
you quit now, so you don’t nd yourself walking in my shoes when you get older.

Arlene Nidel
UNM student