I assume every single Birther, anti-health care reform, anti-bailout conservative yelling in the streets is adamantly opposed to any part of this since it is government interference in our lives. Not to mention restraint of trade on the poor, downtrodden tobacco companies trying to make a few God-given right to earn American dollars!
Hey, you! Stop smoking in my atmosphere!
That’s the message from New York City, where the mayor and health commissioner have just released a policy agenda called “Take Care New York 1012.” Page 10 of the document says the city’s health department “will work with the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation and other entities to expand smoke-free spaces to include city parks and public beaches.” The city council speaker is very interested in the idea, but her help might not be necessary if the parks department can implement the ban as a regulation.
[…]
Then the crusade moved on to apartment buildings, extending the same theory: You can’t smoke in your apartment, because the smoke seeps under your door into hallways and other people’s apartments.Now this rationale has moved outdoors. Way outdoors. David Kessler, the former FDA commissioner who led the anti-smoking fight in the 1990s, says New York City is doing the right thing, because “the majority of the population today doesn’t want to be breathing in tobacco smoke, whether indoors or outdoors.”
[…]
But do I have the right to that standard of purity? If so, doesn’t that justify a ban on smoking absolutely anywhere?
It’s the corporations that are poisoning our air with a myriad of carcinogens, pathogens and things we don’t even know (or care) what they do to humans. But let’s demonize smokers and punish them while corporate America keeps pumping the air full of evil.
Choke the smoker but let the smoke stacks spew whatever they want because the politicos make money off that. Makes perfect sense in America,
Meetsy said: “The problem is….smokers are ass*oles, and you are proving my point. The attitude is the problem.”
Me: The attitude is the problem? I agree 100%, YOUR attitude IS the problem.
#65–Robert==No, YOUR attitude is the problem.
God, I love a good discussion just before I pop open a six-pack.
Two firemen killed. All of Angeles National Forest goes up in flames. Likely cause: outdoor smoking.
Naw, don’t ban outdoor smoking. There’s no harm in it.
Right Robert….wait and see what the attitude of your kids are as they hold your hand and wait for you to drop dead of lung cancer….
Just wait….it gets even better when they get to see the autopsy.
And alcohol is next, once they are done with tobacco’s carcass.
Ban it.
It’s a health hazard to those around the nicotine addict. I’m ok with the addict inhaling. It’s the exhaling part that’s the problem.
That’s the issue no matter how hard the addicts try to compare it to krispy kreme’s.
I’m an ex-smoker. Giving up was just about the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Even now I remember fondly how magical it was to take time out, go outside and quietly have a smoke. There’s nothing quite like it.
I am not overly inconvenienced by smokers, and apart from their stench at close quarters, it doesn’t worry me at all. Smokers are a dying breed (pun intended) anyway.
Ban all smoking in the media (Tv and movies). And eventually, the kids will grow up never knowing “it’s the cool thing to do”. As their media heroes won’t be allowed to puff away, in their presence. And the producers can’t argue that this is a violation of “free speech”. It’s the tobacco industry that’s keeping Hollywood well stock in product. So what the hell has “speech” got to do with it. How about “realism?” They never show a character standing outside, to smoke. They still smoke away, wherever they please, in their fictional interpretation of America. Where there is no smoking ban. I’d truly love to see the hero of a movie say to someone smoking, “Hey, put that out man. You’re killin me.”
it’s impossible to stop a trillion dollar business without a fight, the question is who cares enough to take the fight, they on the other side care for their cash flow, what do we care for…not breathing the seeped smoke in our hallways!!!! don’t think so, we have to stop this devilish industry, cause its existence is a threat to our children, and i think we would be asked why didn’t you TRY to stop this wrong.
Have they ever thought about the bad fumes expelled by cars and why arent they banned allready? They are taking it too far
The problem lie in respect for others, and it exists on both sides of the fence. The biggest killer on the planet is folks who think they can dictate other folks’ lifestyle. Sure there are rude smokers but demonizing them all is neurotic. Just because you can smell smoke does not mean its killing you. It’s a rediculous claim when you’ve got millions of two pack a day smokers who manage to get along for years. Don’t like the smell? fine. There’s plenty of other smells out there that aren’t so sweet too but we live with a lot of them just fine. You want to live in confined areas with lots of people then you get what you pay for. I’m 100% behind keeping smoke outside and keeping it away from people who don’t like it but if you choose to live shoulder to shoulder with other people then you are going to be inconvenienced. Get over it. Anybody who chooses to live in ant hives gets little sympathy from me.
#76, greyangel,
Spoken like a two pack a day smoker who can’t quit and is looking for some justification for what she does.
Thank you Mr. Smoker!
You are defending a dirty, smelly, filthy addiction. It is an addiction. Heroin is probably better for you — and safer for those around you.
Smokingis expensive. It will cause you physical harm (from the minor — early aging, wrinkles, to the major lung cancer, throat and tongue cancer, etc.). There is no doubt it will damage you…there is ample evidence to show that. There are nicotine-induced changes in in brain areas responsible for orienting, planning and processing of emotional stimulus. (It dulls you!)
Cigarettes are the leading cause — actually, the NUMBER ONE CAUSE — of fatal fires in the U.S.. They cause one of every four fire deaths. The number of fires started by cigarettes is rising. In 1999, 167,700 fires were started by cigarettes — a 19% increase over the previous year. Over 1,000 people die as a result of these fires each year. Of these, 34% of the victims are the children of the smokers. 25% of the victims are neighbors or friends of the smoker who caused the blaze. 2,500 people are injured.
As for outdoor fires: there are an estimated 655,200 outdoor fires what occur annually in the U.S. (which are not naturally caused, i.e. lightening) resulting in 50 civilian deaths, 875 civilian injuries, and $154 million in property loss. Conservative estimates have said that it varies by region, but as little as 30% to as many as 50% of those fires are caused by cigarettes and careless smokers.
Discarded cigarette butts are toxic. Toxic chemicals leach out of cigarette butts & can kill small animals, the butts are mistaken for food (and accumulate in the stomach of some animals). Children in households where cigarettes were smoked in their presence were four times as likely to ingest cigarettes or cigarette butts as children in households where smoking does not occur around children.
Little kids that EAT cigarette butts get sick — in some instances, this is life threatening.
Secondhand smoke contains up to 4,000 chemicals, 200 of these chemicals are poisonous and 60 of them are carcinogens. These include trace amounts of poisons like formaldehyde, arsenic, DDT and cyanide. More than 40 of the substances are know to cause cancer. Many more cause irritation of the lungs and airways. Secondhand smoke has been classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a Group A carcinogen (cancer causing agent.) Group A carcinogens are the most harmful.
Meanwhile, smoking costs money in more than a few ways…increased washing/cleaning clothing, increased need to paint home interiors, replace fabrics/furniture, and more veterinary bills, pediatric bills, and more frequent illness (colds/flu). Homes which smell like smokers sit on the market longer, and get a lower price, ditto with cars (infact, many people refuse to purchase a used car that stinks of a smoker). Smoking is a huge waste of time. Most people who’ve quit report an increase in “free time” and productivity.
I could go on…but maybe you’ve gotten the point?
I see no reason why a rational, reasonable person would even want to continue such a dangerous, expensive, and disgusting habit. It makes no sense. You’re self-medicating with a potent toxin — for what? Get unaddicted…and see how the rest of us live.
As for the “attitude” of smokers — after reading the above, they’ll still try and rationalize their habit and say “so?” and then change the subject and talk about car emissions or something else totally irrelevant. Addicts are addicts, and these particular addicts are in denial.
There is no useful, safe, or intelligent reason to smoke — wise up.
I like girls who smoke. They’ll put anything in their mouths.
this is a billion dollar industry, people fighting for it has a lot to fight for…and so we all have to know that chasing seeping smoke in the hallways and restraining smoking areas is not enough, refusing to be second hand smokers is not good enough as a cause for our anti-smoking struggle if we wanted to add up to smoke billionaire’s motives, they should stop cause their existence is wrong…cause they threat our children, as a second hand or even as potential smokers…i’m an x-smoker and i tell you, restraining is no good…
Himm, looks like you insulted about 60% or more of the American population.
With friends like you Obama doesn’t need enemies to foil his plans.
> Should smoking be banned outdoors?
Right after car and truck exhaust and factory smoke stacks are banned outdoors.
First, you need, you must close the cigarrette factories down. That is the only way to get people that are addicted to it to stop the you can ban it everywhere. They tobacco industry is going to have to find another way to make money without killing our planet and people. I tried to quick but My brain started hurting when I tried but like I said we’ll have to find another habit like chewing gum or something that will not destroy the air we breathe and we’ll have a better chance at saving our planet now. We must ban/ close all tobacco industies down and tell stores to longer carry it and that goes for anything else that is not good for us ban it!! Pass a bill, make a pretition, whatever it takes to stop this. We’ll hit recycling in a big way right after but we most not wait another second, you got the power, act now!!
I’ve heard of those e cigs that are basically smokeless cigarettes. Do you think that they would be a good alternative? Do you think that it would make a difference in these people’s minds?