care do damn freak'n much about my health, then why the hell isn't cigarette smoking banned for use by truck drivers? Right now, tomorrow, just put an end to it. You seem to want to do everything else to push your way into my personal business when it comes to my health. So ban smoking!
You people have the nerve to want to make it your business when it comes to my BMI, my blood pressure, when and how I should sleep, how I should eat, How many hours I can and can't work, what pills I can and cannot take, about which doctor I can do go to, BUT YOU ARE SILENT ABOUT CIGARETTE SMOKING! You people are douche-bags.
Oh, it's alright for Pilot, T/A, Road Ranger, Ambest, Petro, Flying J and EVERY OTHER TRUCK STOP to sell cancer-causing deadly cigarettes - BUT YOU ARE SILENT ABOUT THAT! According to the American Heart Association:
"Cigarette smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature death in the United States. It accounts for nearly 440,000 of the more than 2.4 million annual deaths. Cigarette smokers have a higher risk of developing several chronic disorders. These include fatty buildups in arteries, several types of cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (lung problems). Atherosclerosis (buildup of fatty substances in the arteries) is a chief contributor to the 'high number of deaths from smoking. Many studies detail the evidence that cigarette smoking is a major cause of coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attack. Tobacco use costs the nation about $100 billion each year in direct medical expenses and lost productivity. Both lung cancer and emphysema would be quite rare if people would stop smoking. The link between secondhand smoke and disease is well known, and the connection to cardiovascular-related disability and death is also clear. About 22,700 to 69,600 premature deaths from heart and blood vessel disease are caused by other people's smoke each year.
So, I'm asking you, why don't you ban smoking? Why not ban the sales of cigarettes at truck stops to truck drivers? Don't you think that we drivers find it odd that you push these unfunded mandates on us, but ignore how we are going to pay to see your certified doctors to evaluate us to tell us if we can make a living? So what about the drivers who don't have health insurance? What about the drivers - and they're many - who smoke? What about the one's that don't smoke and have to inhale second-hand smoke? How can you say it's OK for them to drive? Because you're hypocrites. And the ATA, the FMSCA and the DOT are allowed to do conduct this health witch hunt against the powerless American trucker. Why? Because it is in the "public" interest to have safe truck drivers?
This whole situation makes me sick. Maybe every blogger out there should be writing about this and not crap about going to trucking shows, the latest product to open your hood or the other shit I read about. OOIDA is more interested in freak'n bees and the latest Pilot truck stop than this.
The photo credit is: http://www.books4you.addr.com/quitsmoking.html
