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Subscribe to RSSMIAMI -- The Vero Beach living facility that plans to evict a 97-year-old woman for not complying with their no smoking policy released a statement Thursday that said she cannot continue to smoke and compromise the health of the other residents.
Jane O’Grady has been living at the facility for seven years and started smoking when she was 20 years old. The no smoking policy was initiated three years ago.
“Community living requires compromise, and she has unfortunately decided that her right to smoke supersedes the rights of the other 197 members and 95 employees who live and work here,” Alton Mendleson of The Lakes at Pointe West said in a statement, obtained by TCPalm.com.
The Lakes at Pointe West said they have been trying to work with O’Grady since the start of the new policy. The director said he made an exception to the rule and let her smoke outside of her apartment.
Original story: Facility Defends Possible Eviction of 97-year-old Smoker on NBCMiami.com
"I went outside, and then it turned so cold, I couldn't stand it," O’Grady was quoted as saying.
O’Grady also declined moving to the assisted-living community where employees could take her for walks to smoke, so she went back to smoking 10 cigarettes a day inside of her rented apartment.
"While Mrs. O'Grady is very concerned about the uncertainty of her living accommodations, which is taking a toll on her, she is very intelligent, has a lot of spunk and is not one to back away when she believes that she is in the right," her attorney Bill Stewart told TCPalm.
O’Grady said she was surprised by the eviction. Her friends said she has been acting differently since receiving the notice.
"If smoking was going to be a problem for the operator, it should have thought of that when it signed the Occupancy Agreement," Stewart was quoted as saying. "There is no reason why Mrs. O'Grady should suffer at this point for the operator's oversight."
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While I sympathize with this lady(I smoke), she made the agreement to smoke outside three years ago and if she gets coled then she should put on more clothing to go out on her deck/pourch and stick to the agreement. I would like to know if her unit has a separate HVAC system? If it does then there is no danger to the other tenants because her smoke is contained to her unit and does not go anywhere else.
While I sympathize with this lady(I smoke), she made the agreement to smoke outside three years ago and if she gets cold then she should put on more clothing to go out on her deck/porch and stick to the agreement. I would like to know if her unit has a separate HVAC system? If it does then there is no danger to the other tenants because her smoke is contained to her unit and does not go anywhere else.
You will find the below very embarrassing in a second hand smoke trial. Msnbc should have covered it:
Schuman's Expert Witnesses Testify in Secondhand Smoke Trial
The plaintiff's expert witnesses spoke up on day three of David Schuman's case against his housing cooperative, Greenbelt Homes, Inc. (GHI), for its failure to prohibit the nuisance created by his townhome neighbors, the Popovics', secondhand smoke.
Courtroom and Plaintiff's Townhome Register Similar Carcinogen Levels
But, an incident from Repace’s testimony Thursday came back into play Friday during cross examination. Goecke pointed out that on Thursday, while demonstrating the carcinogen monitor, Repace had measured the concentration of carcinogens in the court room — which is in a smoke-free building — and the amount he recorded there was similar to what Repace had reported recording in Schuman’s townhome in July of 2011.
greenbelt.patch.com/articles/schumans-expert-witnesses-testify-in-secondhand-smoke-trial
This woman maybe the ROSA PARKS of the smoking ban prohibitions crossing the nation!
A simular occurance happened in UTAH in 1925 that caused the entire statewide smoking ban to be REPEALED!
That ended the anti-tobacco prohibition that had run from 1894-1925 in america. Its not very progressive of anyone to institute failed policies of the past. All these laws do is create fear in the population over the myth of second hand smoke and cause bigotry against poor elderly folks whose age alone destroys the fabricated myths surround smoking as a killer,97 and smoking since 20 years old............
To this date after 80 years and more of research they have no toxicological proof that direct smoking harms anyone!
Not 1 Death or Sickness Etiologically Assigned to Tobacco. All the diseases attributed to smoking are also present in non smokers. It means, in other words, that they are multifactorial, that is, the result of the interaction of tens, hundreds, sometimes thousands of factors, either known or suspected contributors - of which smoking can be one.
I am afraid you are very very wrong that not 1 Death has been associated with smoking, The percentage of people who smoke and get for example these two cancers are thus:
Lung: 80%
Cancer of the Larynx: 78%
Yes these are also present in non-smokers however the cause of their cancer may be attributed to other causes not associated with smoking, The overwhelming inarguable fact is smoking is a major cause of lung cancer of cancer of the larynx in smokers. The rates of these cancers would drop by almost 80% if people did not smoke.
Krestov,
Have one just one doctor prove to anybody that one of those people would not have died of one of those deaths if they did not smoke and I will show you a doctor who got his medical degree in a Cracker Jack Box. No Doctor can or Will be able to say what killed a person beyond you are dead. Even a medical examiner cannot tell you if your dead because your heart stopped or your brain stopped first. You will get an argument. medicine is not an exact science.
JOINT STATEMENT ON THE RE-ASSESSMENT OF THE TOXICOLOGICAL TESTING OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS"
7 October, the COT meeting on 26 October and the COC meeting on 18
November 2004.
"5. The Committees commented that tobacco smoke was a highly complex chemical mixture and that the causative agents for smoke induced diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, effects on reproduction and on offspring) was unknown. The mechanisms by which tobacco induced adverse effects were not established. The best information related to tobacco smoke - induced lung cancer, but even in this instance a detailed mechanism was not available. The Committees therefore agreed that on the basis of current knowledge it would be very difficult to identify a toxicological testing strategy or a biomonitoring approach for use in volunteer studies with smokers where the end-points determined or biomarkers measured were predictive of the overall burden of tobacco-induced adverse disease."
In other words ... our first hand smoke theory is so lame we can't even design a bogus lab experiment to prove it. In fact ... we don't even know how tobacco does all of the magical things we claim it does.
The greatest threat to the second hand theory is the weakness of the first hand theory.
Just think how old this lady could live if she didn't smoke.I smoke and I know it is bad for me but not any worse than being FAT(Not PC I know).If the government wants to stop smoking because of medical cost.Then I want fast food resturants to ban FAT people because my tax money is paying for their medical care.This G--D---d country had better get off the PC bandwagon
jroliver.............are we angry?
Maybe we need to put the old lady on the TalkShow Circuit to raise money and buy her own house where she can live out the rest of her life without other people bugging her.
jrolive - one big difference, FAT people dont kill people sitting in the same room inhaling the carcinogens and cause them as well to be a burden on the tax payer with medical issues.
I just quit smoking after 42 years. Three days and counting. As for you, old girl, YOU GO!!!! You were there before they took smoking out. Make them make you leave. Big bullies. You smoke inside of your own apartment, they dont have to come in if they dont want to. GO GRANNY GO!!!!
She should switch to medicinal tobacco!