Smoking in convenience stores

As a matter of policy, we don't run letters to the editor that criticize a business for a specific business policy, and we don't use the letters section to get involved in business disputes.

For example, if you want to say local stores should carry more produce and fewer canned goods, fine. If you want to say the 151st Street Corner Grocery charges too much for canned beets and should carry more iceberg lettuce, we'll probably pass on that one. Or if you write a letter saying Dr. X should give you a 30-day grace period to pay your bill instead of 15, we'll pass on that one, too.

A lot of writers don't realize that if we let them say Dr. X has strict billing policies, fairness would require us to run Dr. X's letter saying the previous writer is a deadbeat who never pays his bills.

And we never know if the person writing the letter has a real grievance or is a rival business trying to stir up trouble.

We also don't run anonymous letters.

Having said all that, I wish to pass along this letter. It came without a signature. It violates the policies I mentioned above. But I want to pass it along anyway. I have removed the name of the business in question and the location. Suffice it to say the store is in Kentucky.

I have lived in (place) for almost 20 years. I am a frequent shopper at the (store) location in (place), and I wish to voice a complaint about the smoking allowed in the store by employees.

While controlling the actions of patrons isn't always possible, controlling the actions of your employees and management should be within reason. Over the last few months, anytime you enter the (stoer) in (place), you're overwhelmed by the smell of cigarette smoke. It is so heavily concentrated in the store that it clings to your clothing and hair even though you've only spent two to thre minutes in the store. Tonight I was in the store to purchase a beverage and the air was so thick with smoke that I couldn't catch my breath. I coughed and wheezed until I could get to my asthma inhaler.

The store also STINKS! The (place) (store) location is the only location I've visited that reeks of cigarette smoke. I have literally seen the employees smoking in the store. If they's smoking in any other (company) location it is apparently out of view, smell and breath of the customers.

I don't know if the store is under new management, but in all the years I've been a patron at the store I've never found it to be as unpleasant an experience as it is now. You would expect these surroundings and atmosphere if you walked into a bar -- not a convenience store. The store employees and management have no regard for the public health of its customers or their children.

I'm not going to spend the time to verify the facts or accusations in this letter. I do know that for the longest time, I did my best to avoid certain businesses in Lawrence and Boyd counties that allowed smoking inside. I don't like the smell of smoke, and I don't like to breathe secondhand smoke. A few years ago, I was traveling with my daughter. We stopped at a fast food place in Ironton. There was a crowd of older people smoking in the nonsmoking section. We ate our food and left as quickly as possible. When we've been down that way since, we have avoided that particular place.

The indoor smoking ban in Cabell County made me aware of how much smoke I had to tolerate over the years, whether here at work, at the movie theater or wherever. I'm glad we have the ban. And I hope the writer of this letter gets his or her point across to the management of the store in question.