Of all the regions of the city, the business district has the highest concentration of smokers walking the streets. As soon as I got to the open air outside the trade centers this afternoon, I was immediately assaulted by wafting clouds of second-hand smoke as I threaded my way through the commuting masses.

I'm not sure if there are actually more smokers among the professional crowd or if it's simply a matter of being stuck inside all day. Not being able to smoke all day, the crowd of tobacco lovers hits the street and immediately lights up. The combined result of all of these smokers simultaneously puffing as they crowd the streets is a constant stream of second-hand smoke.

And if the smoke isn't eminating from a pedestrian, it's wafting from the entryways of the numerous office buildings lining the city streets as office workers take their hourly smoke breaks. The smokers, as a group standing in front of office buildings the city over, are primarily 40-50 year old women, breathing deeply on their cigarettes as they grab a quick five minute break.

Thirty years ago, the cigarette was offered as a symbol of freedom, power, and equality to American women. Unfortunately, millions of women accepted this image and have spent the better part of their lives addicted to tobacco. Today, these are the same women that work in nonsmoking offices throughout the city and immediately light up upon hitting the surface streets.

Of all of the sights and sounds and smells of the Big City, few are worse than the wafting cloud of afterwork smoke drifting over the city sidewalks. But no one ever said New York air was supposed to be fresh.