Letter: Vehicle emissions as bad as secondhand smoke

Editor,

How many more facts, figures, statistics and deaths does our society need in order to be convinced that vehicle emissions pose serious hazards, not only to the environment but also to our health?

Every year, vehicles emit tons of poisonous greenhouse gases, such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide - not to mention numerous other carcinogens - into the atmosphere. This leads to global warming, and we breathe this air every day.

Tens of thousands of vehicles drive along Central and Girard Avenues and University and Lomas Boulevards every single day, and even more on the nearby interstate and Downtown. All of us have the right to clean air on campus, so why stop at banning smoking, as others suggest?

People working in bars, casinos, night clubs and pool halls are constantly exposed to secondhand smoke. Countless children grow up in families where one or both parents smoke in the house or the car. But since there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, you can't be too careful. I want to be sure that if I am playing on Johnson Field, some jerk at the Duck Pond isn't smoking and exposing me to a serious health hazard - not on my campus.

First, we ban smoking. Then, since it is unrealistic to ban vehicles, we enclose the campus in a giant bubble. We all have the right to clean air, and it is about time we did something about it.

Steven Aragon

UNM student