Dear Editor,
As a health-conscious person, I am totally disgusted daily as I try to enjoy the open air, only to have my lungs assaulted by huge clouds of dangerous carbon monoxide coming out of vehicles.
The most outstanding incidents occurred as I walked up Mountain Spring only to be overwhelmed by this from a minibus carrying police personnel. Then the following day, walking on South Avenue, three different cars passed by the traffic light at Waterloo Road and sent out clouds of dangerous carbon monoxide into our lungs. That is now a regular thing on the roads of the capital city. I had to shake my head.
For, here we are in a country where there is now this big to-do about cigarette smoking and the effects of second-hand smoke — I agree with the ban, incidentally, but certainly not some of the regulations and the ridiculous fines — but we ignore daily the far greater danger posed by carbon monoxide from vehicles, and police vehicles to boot!
The law banning such vehicles on the roads has been in existence for decades. What of enforcement? So yes, the cigarette smoking ban is the big news today, but I am here to bet that, by next year, the ban will be honoured in the breach, just as we have been ignoring for years the far more dangerous incidents of vehicles belching dangerous carbon monoxide into the lungs. And since the lawmakers are definitely among the fortunate ones who travel around in closed- up air-conditioned vehicles, my chance of losing that bet is zero!
Joan E Williams
gratestj@gmail.com
As a health-conscious person, I am totally disgusted daily as I try to enjoy the open air, only to have my lungs assaulted by huge clouds of dangerous carbon monoxide coming out of vehicles.
The most outstanding incidents occurred as I walked up Mountain Spring only to be overwhelmed by this from a minibus carrying police personnel. Then the following day, walking on South Avenue, three different cars passed by the traffic light at Waterloo Road and sent out clouds of dangerous carbon monoxide into our lungs. That is now a regular thing on the roads of the capital city. I had to shake my head.
For, here we are in a country where there is now this big to-do about cigarette smoking and the effects of second-hand smoke — I agree with the ban, incidentally, but certainly not some of the regulations and the ridiculous fines — but we ignore daily the far greater danger posed by carbon monoxide from vehicles, and police vehicles to boot!
The law banning such vehicles on the roads has been in existence for decades. What of enforcement? So yes, the cigarette smoking ban is the big news today, but I am here to bet that, by next year, the ban will be honoured in the breach, just as we have been ignoring for years the far more dangerous incidents of vehicles belching dangerous carbon monoxide into the lungs. And since the lawmakers are definitely among the fortunate ones who travel around in closed- up air-conditioned vehicles, my chance of losing that bet is zero!
Joan E Williams
gratestj@gmail.com