Re: Smoking

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 12:17 PM, bardi <bardichaun@gmail.com> wrote:
> Should there be a law against smoking? In parks and such I certainly agree.
> But pubs? I think perhaps the owners should have the right to decide.

By and large I tend to think of smoke in bars and such as a workplace
health issue. The folks who are exposed long-term tend to be the
employees of the bar, and for them there's less of an option to just
go to another bar. It was one reason that I supported the smoking ban
in Philadelphia: so many bars still allowed smoking that in order to
work as a bartender, you pretty much had to resign yourself to
breathing huge amounts of second-hand smoke for eight to twelve hours
every day, and the amount of smoke in a bar is usually going to far
exceed that which you'd encounter even in the home of a chainsmoker. I
knew bartenders who smoked themselves who were still thrilled with the
ban.

I don't understand banning smoking in open public areas, however.
Playgrounds? Sure. Areas that are going to be crowded? Makes sense.
But I don't understand laws against sitting down on a park bench in
the middle of a public square and having a cigarette or a pipe. While
there are those who are going to occasionally catch a noseful and find
it unpleasant, we're not talking about risk from prolonged exposure
for anyone but the smoker.