Spectrum Science Blog

From a girl who came from the West Coast where the ban of smoking cigarettes in work places was enacted in January 1995 and banned in restaurants three years later, it was a shock to move to the D.C. area and find you could still smoke indoors in some establishments directly outside The District.

My doe-eyed, granola crunching, outdoorsy, non-smoking California self was definitely taken aback at the amount of smokers around me. Even some two and a half years later, it still shocks me on my morning commute to find myself walking behind someone to the Red Line (D)Re(a)d Line who has a cigarette in their hand at 7:30 in the morning.

Naturally, with a health communicator’s strategic mind, I began to tally the amount of men and women I witnessed lighting up during my morning jaunts to work between the hours of 7:30 and 9:00 a.m.

My findings? Interestingly enough, the majority of the people I witnessed were women around the ages of 30-55 strutting in pencil skirts and pumps with a lit cigarette balancing in their hand. To be frank, I was shocked when I tallied the numbers. Really, ladies? After all the facts we know about tobacco?

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