PSA

[kengr]

This was promted by a discussion of trying to have smokers and non-smokers co-exist peacefully at camping events, but has wider application:

Do *not* claim to be allergic/asthmatic/etc unless you actually are.

People *claiming* allergies and other *serious* reactions to things when in reality, they merely dislike (however intensely) something make it hard for those of us who really *do* NEED those things kept away from us to get people to listen.

Yes, it may be annoying having to put up with the disliked items especially when the person you've asked to stop is being a jerk about it.

But claiming a medical justification that you don't have just makes it more likely that the person will be a jerk to someone when it really *does* matter.

There are folks who've wound up in the hospital because those sorts of false claims have trained people to think "allergic to" means "don't like".

Comments

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite dickhead smoker moves was banning me from events unless I had a medical action plan and an attendant nurse because some yob blowing smoke in my face can lead to a trip to the emergency room.

[kengr]

In the US that could lead to a discrimination lawsuit.

I'd at the very least ask them if they planned on enforcing the same policy with regards to people who are allergic to bee stings.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

It was a religiously run event. Religious groups are pretty much exempt to anti-discrimination laws in Australia.

[xander-opal.livejournal.com]

Being that I work now at a smoke-free place, I find that cigarette smoke bothers me _much_ more as I, thankfully I think, lost a certain amount of physical tolerance for it. However, I doubt that I qualify for the medical definition of allergic. I do have two siblings who have asthma, and know the results of smoke inhalation on them.

Smoking _is_ an imposition on others who breathe around the addict. They should behave accordingly. At the same time, if a non-addict doesn't like the waste an addict expels, don't go deliberately into said waste. Politeness cuts both ways.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

The other favorite fan disability is photosensitive epilepsy, the condition associated with flashing lights causing seizures. If you listen around fan groups you'd think it was common (it isn't), a quickly blinking light sets off seizures (mostly not), and that strobing lights are the cause (it's a cyclic luminescence variation that triggers most events - so sunlight on waves, driving past a fence, or faulty florescent lights are also triggers). I wrote up an article for the OryCon 28 daily zine after hearing too many complaints about a toy from the dealers' room that blinked.

I'm sure we will hear more about PSE; it sounds exotic and interesting, yet has no symptoms most of the time and is hard to diagnose anyway.