An open letter to City Hall

I smoke and as a smoker I have been lobbying and complaining for years about a certain issue and now I have a great piece of proof to back me up. Keep reading, I'll get to it in a minute.

As a smoker I can no longer smoke in any bar or restaurant in town, and now there is a new by-law being voted on to remove smoking from public parks.

That's genius...it's a wide open space but you can't smoke there! Give me a break. Seriously. Imagine going to Gillies Lake and trying to enforce that, imagine the amount of people who will no longer support events for local charities at Gillies or Hollinger...or anywhere else because they can't smoke there.

If I can't go to an event and have a cigarette....then why would I bother giving any money to something that I can't enjoy being a part of?

On to the issue I was speaking of. A few weeks back myself and some friends were having lunch at a local restaurant and we had to ask the server to move us because we couldn't stand the stench coming from the table next to us. A woman had so much perfume on she smelled like a 3 dollar (fill in the blank) and one of my friends is highly allergic to perfume.

In Fort Worth Texas toxic fumes had sickened almost 150 people at a bank call center. Officials thought it was carbon monoxide.

34 people were taken to hospitals, at least 12 were transported by ambulance, because they were feeling dizzy and having breathing problems.

Was it smoke? Nope.

So what was this toxic fume...it was perfume.

Never, ever has a cigarette sent that many people to hospital after being lit. NEVER.

This worker sprayed the perfume once and bang, major issue. 110 people were treated on sight.

So if we are going to continuously ban smoking then it is obviously time to ban perfume's as well.

Some people don't like the smell of smoke or are allergic to it and I understand that and respect it. You can't even smoke in our house because of the kids. Well, guess what...some folks are allergic to perfume or don't like the smell of it either.

So City Hall...let's take a vote on banning perfume from restaurants and bars and parks also shall we?

It's only fair to those folks out there who are allergic to it or simply don't like the smell isn't it?

You won't....but you should.

Respectfully

Garret Belisle