Today is your day Boomer! I always thought I was a non-smoker. Both my parents smoked at an early age and cancer runs in my family. But apparently I do smoke and so do you....if you live in a big city. The latest research, as depicted in this graph, shows that by breathing-in polluted air, it is just like smoking! Montreal is the worst city in Canada, Victoria is 13th at 86 cigarettes and Vancouver is number 16 at 59 cigs. What about globally? In Dhaka, Bangladesh, for example, people "smoke" the equivalent of an astonishing 1,176 cigarettes annually due to poor air quality. That's about 60 packs per year! Baghdad, Iraq was the second-worst, with residents indirectly smoking 1,009 cigarettes. On the other end of the spectrum, Bern, Switzerland, has the cleanest air of any capital city in the world, with locals indirectly smoking 11 cigarettes each year. I live in the relatively clean Okanagan Valley in BC, so I assume my numbers are low. Trust me....not always, especially during forest fire season it can get pretty bad. Maybe we should still keep those COVID masks handy Boomers?! Cheers and here's to clean air!

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