Public Smoking Bans

[Carlene 12]

I have a friend who works for a large military industrial complex. It's totally non-smoking now, but at first the rule was that you could smoke unless someone complained, then you had to put out your cigarette - no discussion and no recrimination.

My friend had his own office, but did not rate his own secretary, but got to request one from the pool every now and then. As soon as he lit up, after the new rule went into effect, the young lady asked him not to smoke. So the next day, he requested a different secretary. Word got back to secretary number one and she filed a complaint with HR, and threatened to sue. Interestingly enough, she was told that he was not obliged to use the same secretary for more than one day running. Had he sent her packing the same day they assigned her, because she objected to his second-hand smoke, then he would be guilty of violating her rights, but he didn't; he let her stay and finish the day. And they told both of them that he could not request a smoke-friendly secretary, but he never had that particular problem again. What a huge, fortuitous coincidence.

[edieparks 2]

My town , Owensboro Ky, just had a one year anniversary of smoke free businesses that allowed anyone under 18 to enter. One year ago all the businesses complained that it would hurt business.

They did a big article after one year and those same businesses had to admit it had helped business and most of those owners had quit and wanted to quit smoking.

Big turn around.

I love it . I never even wanted to sit close to the smoking section.

edie

[MzAngel 0]

Carlene - I'm sorry if I had a go at you, I suppose I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder still from years of lectures LOL. Either that or i'll put it down to hormones I'm lucky I was able to quit smoking as during this pregnancy I can't stand the smell of it.

And in general no one is saying that you have to be subjected to second hand smoke, when i go out with my kids i choose non smoking reasturants, when i'm visiting friends, even if they are smokers I used to step outside to light up. I always asked if it was ok to light up if other's where seated around me.

But gone are the days where you could enjoy a smoke with a beer, or light up after a meal. What's wrong with giving the business the choice so that there's an option out there for those of us who do want to enjoy a smoke???

[Carlene 12]

But gone are the days where you could enjoy a smoke with a beer, or light up after a meal. What's wrong with giving the business the choice so that there's an option out there for those of us who do want to enjoy a smoke???

Oh, I totally agree. Some places, however, should be totally non-smoking, since we don't have a choice as to which courthouse etc we use. But smokers can get very pushy. They will light up in the bathroom of a non-smoking restaurant, or even a church.

Non-smokers aren't always the picture of politeness, either. I have a friend who is a CPA. She offered to do a tax return for a woman from her church for free, because the woman was out of work and had little money. She came to Carol's house for this service and when Carol lit a cigarette, she asked her not to smoke....in her own house. Now that takes nerve.

While we were waiting for my oldest grandson to be born - in the waiting room set aside for smokers - my DIL's father sat there the whole time complaining about the smoke. I pointed out that there was a much larger non-smoking waiting room and he said it was full of "screaming little kids". He obviously wanted an adults only, non-smoking area. Some people are never happy.

[Kat817 19]

As a reformed smoker myself, I was happy to have the city nearest us, go smoke free. It was apalling to me, to see the high school kids on lunch, how many of them were not only lighting up, but pressuring other kids to do the same!!! The food court at our mall, had a smoking section back then, and the kids would all stand watch (they were obviously underage) and take turns smoking. A friend once said something to them---and they took a window out of her business (an eyeglasses shop)....so it always left me uneasy about saying anything to the big group of kids. Mall security was worthless. So when the town there went smoke free, it was great over there! Then we found trying to get into our favorite little Mexican restaurant here in our little town, was all but impossible, you HAD to make sure to walk around to the non smoking side---there was standing room only in the bar, where they were smoking! Then along came the governor (a current presidential candidate) and enacted a state wide smoking ban! It also makes it illegal to smoke within 25 feet of a building. So we no longer have to walk through the haze to enter our hospital! Or any other building. We ask the owner of our little restaurant if it hurt his business, he said not at all, it actually improved. He said they were turning his smoking patio into a full fledged bar. They did not come to eat, and drink, and have a smoke or 2. They came to party,and smoke. They would take up one table for 4 hours, never order food. He said it cost him his usual customer base. This was a rare restaurant, it actually is almost 2 separate buildings---with full doors between the 2 areas, but now we can actually go to the place, sit on the patio, listen to the live music...and....breath!

Quitting was not easy for me (lucky Alex), I quit because it was bad for me, and for those around me. If I chose to do the difficult thing of quitting, I do not want to breath someone elses smoke, and encounter the same dangerous issues I quit to avoid. I quit 16 years ago---an have avoided smoke ver since.

IF you could smoke, not exhale, and not have the smoldering cigarette then smoking would only be your business. Same as a person chewing tobacco, and swallowing as opposed to spitting---it is not affecting me, only their own health. I am not subjected to it. When you can smoke without subjecting me to it, then it is your right, without infringing on my rights. When it (the smoke) mixes into the air, I no longer have a choice of whether to breath or not.

I watched a TV report the other day and I think they said it was in Hawaii, they are trying to make it illegal to smoke in your car, if a child is in the car.....

At our local grocery store, the cashiers used to stand guard smoking at the door, especially in weather extremes. Now they can't. So they decided to "get even" and they marinate in perfume---seriously, to walk in it smells like a cosmetic counter---or as my Dad referred to it ( how he knows I don't want to know!!!) a whorehouse!!!! I can no longer shop in my own home town. I fired off a letter to Safeway headquarters!

I do not lecture my best friend who is a smoker. I am not lecturing anyone here. I do not want her or anyone smoking in my house. When I go to hers, she smokes out on the deck---out of courtesy. Same as when I take dessert to her house for potluck, I make it sugar free---her DH is diabetic. It is common courtesy.

Kat

[susannah 2]

Hey, Smoking is so gross. Do people realize they are putting battery acid and ammonia among many other chemicals into their body? It also reeks. You often see beautiful women all dressed up and smoking and they stink of cigarette smoke. Not too glamourous.

I am glad Australia is becoming a pretty much anti smoking country. Sometimes you have to save people from themselves.

Susannah

[rrod0991 0]

My husband and I are both smokers. I work at a hospital and it is a smoke free campus. I will smoke one on the way to work some days other days I won't. I don't have one at lunch and I don't have one until I get in my car and off the campus. As a former non-smoker that lived with smokers from birth and then married one I have always stood up for smokers rights. There is one small bar in town that I can go to if I want a drink because it is a smoking establishment. That bar is always packed with both smokers and non. The three other bars in town are empty most nights and close at 830pm. Sacramento is trying to make it illeagle to smoke in your car or house as well as all of the already banned places. If I want to kill my self with smoking that let me and if you, a non-smoker does not like it then you stay home and let us have a good time. I carry a smoke not a gun and being around my smoke for the few seconds it will take you to walk past me will not kill you but if people do not get off this kick of smokers are killing those around them I will scream. If you don't like it stay home! That is what you all expect us to do. I started smoking when my husband came home one night and told me his girlfriend was pregnant. Would you non-smokers rather I smoke or shoot drugs because at that moment I found out not only was my husband cheating but having a baby too. I needed something so I grabed his pack and lit one up.I CAN go all day without having one but when I want one I don't want to HAVE to hide when it is not illeagle to smoke yet. We, for the most part, try to think of you non-smokers and be polite, but when someone walks by being rude to me about it I get rude back.

[Marimaru 7]

I am a non-smoker. Until my sisters got pregnant, I was the ONLY non-smoker in my family, my dad, my sisters, my mom, her boyfriend, my fiance, all smoked. Their smoking didn't bother me unless it got straight in my face, which people were always careful about. I didn't mind sitting in the smoking section with them, etc... but I don't mind not having to smell it wherever I go now. I think *maybe* there should be bars that can have smoking, but again, a totally smoking, or non smoking place, no 'sections'. As for cigarette taxes, I don't think the smoking bans are affecting that as much as one might think... Lots of people go out to smoke and suck down 2 cigarettes instead of just one 'since they are out there'. Besides, they just raise the tax and you guys pay more for your cigs, lol.

I agree that a town based ban wont work, it's gotta be state wide, or people will just pop over to the next town where they can smoke, and that will hurt the local businesses a bit. California is a non-smoking state for indoors, but also themeparks now have 3 or 4 very small smoking sections, even though the whole park is outside. As 'inconvenient' as it might be, I think it's alot better for the kids that go, and frankly, better for the underage smokers since they can't just light up wherever. I go with my fiance on alot of his smoke breaks (so yes, I am also 'inconvenienced' by having to step away), but it's not that big of a deal.

My only thing with my fiance and his smoking is that either he'll need to quit (which he says he wants to do) or go outside to smoke when we have kids.

[green 6]

As I have said in an earlier post, where I live (Ontario, Canada) does not allow smoking indoors in any public building anymore. Those restaurants and bars which did once have the option of choosing to be either family/smokeless establishments or smoking establishments no longer have that option. For a smoker like myself this is annoying but I have learned to deal with this.

The one place where I still bitterly regret being unable to smoke is on aircraft. In those good old days the smokers were sent to the rear of the plane and this area usually ended up being an adults-only zone. This was an added benefit for us for we were not subjected to screaming babies nor tiny children who persisted in kicking the back of our seats during the entire duration of a transatlantic flight. The other advantage was the cabin air had to be flushed much more frequently with fresh air. This is expensive fuel-wise but I did not crawl home in those days, as I inevitably do now, with a wicked foreign cold or flu.

[Carlene 12]

Actually, Green, it was the Flight Attendants union that lobbied to have smoking banned on airplanes. The sky is their workplace, so to speak, and they felt they were trapped in a smoking environment. I heard one say that anyone who wanted to smoke should feel free to step out onto the wing.

[green 6]

Well if only there could still be an adults only section of the plane and cleaner air, whines Green, she could do without a cigarette! Afterall, there is always the nicotine patch!

It's the noisy infants and the dirty cabin air which gets Green these post-smoke days!!:cry

[musicalmomma 1]

Well if only there could still be an adults only section of the plane and cleaner air, whines Green, she could do without a cigarette! Afterall, there is always the nicotine patch!

It's the noisy infants and the dirty cabin air which gets Green these post-smoke days!!:cry

Those noisy infants annoy their parents as much if not more than the other passengers...cuz it embarrasses the parent...at least when my kids were small, that's how I felt. One of my little darlings cried for SEVEN hours from London Heathrow to Philadelphia...she finally drifted off to sleep TEN MINUTES before we landed!!! That was a nightmare of a trip for me, hubby and everyone within earshot! Although, MOST people were very kind and understanding about it. Now when I fly and babies cry, I just THANK THE LORD it's NOT ME having to deal with a crybaby for the entire flight! hahaha

As far as those kids kicking the seats...I don't understand parents that let their kids be so darn obnoxious! It's hard to travel with kids...ya gotta keep them entertained for SUCH a long time now, I guess once they sit down on the plane, the parents just zone out from exhaustion! haha!

[green 6]

Those noisy infants annoy their parents as much if not more than the other passengers...cuz it embarrasses the parent...at least when my kids were small, that's how I felt. One of my little darlings cried for SEVEN hours from London Heathrow to Philadelphia...she finally drifted off to sleep TEN MINUTES before we landed!!! That was a nightmare of a trip for me, hubby and everyone within earshot! Although, MOST people were very kind and understanding about it. Now when I fly and babies cry, I just THANK THE LORD it's NOT ME having to deal with a crybaby for the entire flight! hahaha

As far as those kids kicking the seats...I don't understand parents that let their kids be so darn obnoxious! It's hard to travel with kids...ya gotta keep them entertained for SUCH a long time now, I guess once they sit down on the plane, the parents just zone out from exhaustion! haha!

I do feel for ya but if there was a family section and an adults only section in the aircraft this could be a good thing for those of us who are old and cranky and travelling child-free.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

...Every smoker is fully aware that smoking is a dirty and destructive habit. It is also highly addictive and quitting is difficult for everyone and hellishly difficult for some! Hearing some do-gooder chirp that "smoking is bad for the health, you know," is both useless and wildly irritating to the smoker for, afterall, we all know that!

Agreed. It's as useful as saying, "Just lose weight!"

Idiots.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

...But smokers can get very pushy. They will light up in the bathroom of a non-smoking restaurant, or even a church. ...

Don't be lumping us all in one neat and tidy group! I don't even smoke in my own home or car if a non smoker is with me.

I disagree with the bans but I have to say, it doesn't affect me much. I don't typically smoke in public, just my home and car for the most part.

It should be up to the business, not the gov't. The LAST thing we need is the gov't telling us when we can and cannot do a legal habit. It's up to the business.