A breath of dead air

Not surprisingly I have an ever-growing list of pet hates. Depending on my mood, I shuffle my hatred for queues and dog-lovers, with my disdain for traffic police and taxi drivers, adding new found dislikes, such as spitting in public, to this burgeoning list of splenetic fury. But this week I have a brand new pet hate - bad breath. Why is it people with smelly breath are always those types who have no sense of personal space? It's almost as it they are forcing their death breath on you, sharing their own bit of misery with you. I've found the great majority of stinky breathers have no idea of their personal malaise. Why? Well, because it's one of those things many people find they can't broach with halitosis-sufferers. It's not polite to tell someone they have bad breath, didn't you know? Instead we smile politely, occasionally wrinkling our noses, wiping away tears of pain as we engage halitosis-spreaders. That's the stock standard approach many of us follow. And so I guess we just have to suffer in silence under the dictatorship of foul breath. As a radio journalist I have to interview people in person daily. Let me tell you, I've interviewed some important people and I'm overjoyed to say even those who think their poo smells like roses, have exceptionally bad breath. I won't mention names, but it is strangely, maybe even cruelly satisfying to know even these personalities live with this common personal hygiene problem. I recall doing an interview with a prominent trade unionist some time back. I've encountered some bad halitosis in my day, but this guy had me almost retching. I even had to move ever so slightly, out of range of his oral weapon of massive stinkiness for fear of sharing whatever I'd eaten that day with him.
Then you get smokers breath and in worse case scenarios halitosis compounded by this dirty habit. Such types never seem to think their habit is filthy and so they'll invade your space, stinking of stale smoke and a healthy dose of halitosis. Yummy.
Surely we'd be doing them a favour by informing them their breath is doing them more harm than good? No? Or should we just put on brave faces and deal with the stench? If I won't even let my girlfriend kiss me in the morning because of my morning breath, then surely we can summon up some courage and do the right thing - inform those with bad breath they ain't making no friends in a hurry. I believe it's the right thing to do.