Burning both ends

Dear congressman,

When I was researching you on Wikipedia while starting this blog, I noticed that it was mentioned in passing that you are a chain smoker. While even the new President has been known to occasionally dabble in that particular vice, I would be remiss in not pointing out the following news story about one of your constituents:

Woman burned when oxygen ignites
By Jennifer Baker
MIDDLETOWN – A woman smoking a cigarette while hooked up to an oxygen supply set herself on fire this morning and badly burned her lower body, Middletown fire officials said.

The woman, whose name and age were not released, was taken to Atrium Medical Center in Middletown with non-life threatening injuries, said Fire Capt. Bill Lolli.

The blaze damaged the woman's apartment about 3:30 a.m. in a house in the 1300 block of Girard Avenue. A fire detector awakened three other residents.

When fire crews arrived, the other residents had rescued the woman and were bringing her out, Lolli said. She suffered burns to her lower body, Lolli said.

This is the third fire this year the captain said he's been to that was ignited by a person smoking while hooked up to oxygen.

"It’s a serious safety hazard to smoke while you have oxygen on," Lolli said. "Oxygen will support combustion. I’m not sure if they knew better or not .... I guess they just don’t really think it can happen."

Damage to the apartment was estimated at about $25,000. The American Red Cross responded to help.

Now, I am not a saint on this issue either, as I smoked for over 18 years, from 1979 to 1997. But it really does say something about the additive nature of nicotine if you are sitting in your residence with a large green bottle of oxygen that states in large letters on the side "FIRE HAZARD- NO SMOKING" and as an individual you still flick that bic or light that match right next to a a tube that is flowing pure oxygen into your nostrils....

Whereas I freely admit that I was addicted to nicotine during my smoking years, I somehow want to believe that if I was on oxygen, probably due to smoking induced reduced lung capacity, that I would somehow either quit smoking or find a nicotine delivery system that would not have the potential to turn me into an individual version of the Burning Man Festival...

As an ending note, and not to be to nagging here about your cigarette hobby, I used to get bronchitis on an annual basis like clockwork when I was part of the Marlboro man club, but since 1997 I have not had a bronchial problem... even once...

Your call Congressman Boehner...