RE: Should smoking be banned in public?
People who want to ban stuff ought to be BANNED...!!!...., pretty soon they will make it an offense to fart in public or to wear a loud shirt in a built up area in the hours of darkness .....or something....
...hold on...just checking to see if i have the right to breathe [>:]
RE: Should smoking be banned in public?
Hi all,
I found this little excerpt from a Radio phone in from the Rep of Ireland regarding developments and the publics thoughts now that it has been a few weeks since the smoking ban http://www.radioireland.ie/audio/giftfartliveline-1.wma smoking in Ireland discussion
Rgds,
Roger
RE: Should smoking be banned in public?
Front page of today's 'The Guardian' -
Labour to ban public smoking
Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent
Wednesday June 30, 2004
The Guardian
A ban on smoking in public places along the lines of restrictions in Ireland will form part of Labour's third term manifesto, according to draft policy documents to be presented to Labour's policy forum...
In Ireland it has been illegal to smoke in bars and most other public places since March this year.
The third term Labour agenda, passed to the Guardian and due to be published later in the summer, focuses on restrictions on binge drinking, irresponsible pubs and unscrupulous food marketing.
The document, the result of consultation involving ministers and party members, will set the themes for Labour's general election manifesto.
"The need to protect young people and children is seen as of paramount importance," the papers conclude.
The wording suggests the government has only to decide whether restrictions on public smoking should be imposed by local councils or national government. Sustained and above-inflation tax increases levied on tobacco products were viewed as the minimum the government should be doing to restrict consumption.
Yesterday, calls for a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants gained weight with the publication of evidence suggesting that the risks of heart disease faced by passive smokers are double what was previously estimated.
Previous research had found that passive smoking is linked with a 25-30% increased risk of coronary heart disease. But the latest study, published on bmj.com, found that non-smokers faced a 50-60% increased risk. The study focused on 4,792 men from 18 British towns who were monitored for 20 years
On obesity, with a white paper due in the summer, the papers say it is essential to have "further consumer information through both marketing and labelling if we are to raise the quality of the nation's diet"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/smoking/Story/0,2763,1250468,00.html
RE: Should smoking be banned in public?
My family's experience is rather like Gilly's
I also had a relative die of lung cancer who never smoked in her life, whose husband did not smoke and did not work in a smoking environment. I have had a friend die of colon cancer who never ate meat, was a vegetarian all her life and a health fanatic. My grandfather smoked all his life and died at 92 and not of cancer of the lungs.
- though it was my gran who did 3 packets a day for 60 years and only made it to a sprightly 88. She was also incredibly considerate about where she smoked and who was around her.
We agree that smoking is bad for us, active or secondary. Enough newspaper articles on that, already!
I do believe that banning would have a lot of negative consequences, would glamourise smoking for kids, wouldn't really cure anyone of an addiction.
We have adequate technology nowadays to ensure that smoking areas don't 'bleed' into other areas and I believe it's important to keep a space for free choice in a humane society. (As far as bar staff are concerned, I'd say the bar doesn't need to be in the smoking area.)
There's a right time in a smoker's life to face the challenge of breaking an addiction, and it isn't up to society to impose that time. Let's have pleasant and well-provided areas for both non-smokers and smokers, so that each is free to breathe what they need.
Deprivation is a wretched, miserable, stressful experience for someone who is addicted to cigarettes. I don't want to punish smokers for their addiction: some of the loveliest, most tolerant and good people in my life have been smokers.
Live and let live, say I!
Love and light
BV
[sm=cat.gif]
PS Of course we need to protect children - no-one advocates smoking in nurseries: but doesn't most exposure of kids to tobacco smoke happen in the home? And how do you tackle that?
RE: Should smoking be banned in public?
ORIGINAL: bigvoice
We agree that smoking is bad for us, active or secondary. Enough newspaper articles on that, already!
I don't think that we do agree about how bad it is - lots of people on HP say things like well it's not that bad, there are worse problems (true, but irrelevant), I don't accept the medical evidence, I don't trust doctors etc
There's a right time in a smoker's life to face the challenge of breaking an addiction, and it isn't up to society to impose that time.
OK but while the smoker is mulling it over I don't want to breathe his smoke.
Deprivation is a wretched, miserable, stressful experience for someone who is addicted to cigarettes.
That's not my problem.
PS Of course we need to protect children - no-one advocates smoking in nurseries: but doesn't most exposure of kids to tobacco smoke happen in the home? And how do you tackle that?
Good question - it is really sickening to see adults who are so selfish as to smoke over children. As I understand it passive smoking is even more harmful to children than it is to adults - this is common sense really - the child's body is less developed and so less strong. I think again that education / public awareness is a major factor here - there is still the attitude of 'oh it's not that bad'. And of course it takes years to change attitudes like this but we are at last moving in the right direction.
Dr L
RE: Should smoking be banned in public?
I am a life long non smoker and I prefer a smoke free environment.
However, I wonder who the Government would cope if all the smokers gave up thus ending the huge subsidy they provide to the Tax system and the NHS?
Pete
RE: Should smoking be banned in public?
My thoughts are that consumers will eventually make their own choice.
If there is a restaurant or bar that allows smoking and as a non smoker you go in there, then it is a choice you made. Its already fairly common for many public places to be completely non smoking or have only a small area.
If a bar bans smoking and finds that its business improves then more bars are likely to follow suit, the opposite case is also true of course. I dont see why *all* public places need the ban though. Let people choose where to go. I dont want the government or any agency telling me what to do more than they already strangle my choices.
Oh and FYI, I was a lifelong smoker until a little over three months ago when I finally managed to kick it, and not because of health risks or cost or anything like that, I was just sick of being controlled by a little white stick... Again a matter of choice.
I have friends who are both smokers and non smokers, I will spend time with them anywhere, mainly as its my belief that if your time is up there isnt a thing you can do about it, and in the mean time, live life to the full! - Please note that this is purely my own belief and I in no way push it on others.
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