Practical solution: Build a gazebo for hospital smokers
As a non-smoker and a cancer patient, I was appalled at the mess smokers were still making at the entrance to the cafeteria at Surrey Memorial Hospital and the Fraser Valley Centre on Dec. 28, 2012.
There were patient and non-patient smokers making the air blue with second-hand smoke.
This is not a good advertisement for the hospital. Those in administration have to find a balance between what the smokers want and the enforcement of Surrey smoking bylaws.
What do smokers want? An area where they can be free of complaining non-smokers and patients who have to run the blue haze gauntlet.
There is, I believe, a common-sense solution. Administration should appropriate the two parking stalls at the northeast of the parking lot and build a gazebo or equivalent with some seating, proper butt containers, and a handicap ramp etc., creating a designated, safe place for smokers that will in turn keep hospital entrances smoke-free and clean for all users.
This I think will go a long way to solving the issue. So smokers have to walk a few yards to get their fix. Exercise is good for everyone – smokers too.
Smokers have a right to smoke, it is a legal substance, but they will probably kill themselves in the process.
Smokers, though, do not have the right to kill others with carcinogen-laden second-hand smoke.
Barry Mudge
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