Once upon a time, there was a bright university professor who lived with her husband and six children, all girls, in a land not far away. This courageous woman uprooted herself from the midst of a communist government to come to a land where freedom reigned. She arrived at her new homeland with her family and for many years worked 1-1/2 jobs, 12 hours a day, until every one of her daughters had graduated from college and she reached retirement age.

One thought kept her going...to one day retire and move in with her oldest daughter in Colorado and write books at her leisure. When the day came and she retired she discovered she had trouble breathing in Colorado and her lungs wouldn't adjust to the altitude. The pulmonologist that was consulted informed her she had "smokers' lungs." He explained that although she had never smoked a single cigarette in her life, her husband of many years had. She had the lungs of a person who'd smoked all her life. To live in Colorado she had to be on oxygen around the clock. It was a matter of life and death.

Medfast, an educational health series from National Jewish Medical and Research Center, has good information on second hand or passive smoke. We see articles on a regular basis that talk about the hazards of second hand smoke. This medfacts link is only one of them.

The woman in this story is my mother. My father was a chain smoker and died a slow and painful death several years ago. He died of lung cancer. Died at an early age. It's sad for me to see my mom struggling to breath day in and day out.

If anyone tells you second hand smoke is not dangerous tell him or her to email my mom, Dr. Aleu. She'd gladly write back and let them know how painful it is to suffer an irreversible respiratory disease just because someone else chose to exercise his free will to smoke...in her presence.