Should Smoking Be Banned?

There has never been a single ounce of proof that "secondhand smoke" has killed anyone. ever.. you show me proof of it and ill stop smoking today

I never claimed second-hand smoke killed anyone. I'm just saying that secondhand smoke can't be good for the human body.

reply to post by Totakeke


Your right, second hand smoke isnt good. But does that mean that your body will be that much more immune to the far more un-healthy things that float all around us because of a smoking ban?

Someone asked earlier why pollution was mentioned. The point is right there in the first paragraph.

I would submit to folks to take a small step ladder, go up to one of your air vents. Remove the vent cover. Take a white towel tied to a rope and then shove that towel into the vent using a broom stick or other long stick, then pull that towel out by the rope....and tell us all how clean the air is your breathing even tho no one in the house smokes.

Try it also at your workplace, at a resturant, church, anywhere there are air vents.

Even try it in your car's air vents on a smaller scale, a white hankie or piece of white toilet paper or paper towel.

Ever wonder why there is a regular cleaning activity called "dusting"? Ever wonder why so much dust accumilates on your nice table or polished furniture and you dust it every other day or week?

Now no one smokes in your home...and yet here you are breathing in all that dust mites and contaminants and germs and ick all the time!! And there isnt a smoker in sight!!!

Point here is that there are far more other things that are affecting your breathing and health than someone 4 feet away from you smoking a cig.

Also, its easy to solve the issue....move upwind. And if you dont want to move, well you just made a choice to not make it easy for yourself to do something for yourself to avoid a problem with your own health!

Surely one could simply take 5 steps up wind from a smoker and resolve the entire issue all together. But no..seems like instead of taking a simple step turns into a complex act of restricting others rights just because of laziness.

To find which direction the wind is blowing, you can do one of two things.

1. Take a wet finger and point it up into the air and then rotate. When you feel the cool wind on your finger, that is the direction you need to move to.

2. Simply watch where the smoke floats. Move into the opposite direction of where the smoke is going.

Pretty simple, and quite effective. Hopefully the direction you move to there isnt an idling semi truck or commuter bus or other source of contaminant generating apparatus pourng 100 times more un healthy stuff into your airzone.




Cheers!!!!

[edit on 13-12-2008 by RFBurns]

Now no one smokes in your home...and yet here you are breathing in all that dust mites and contaminants and germs and ick all the time!! And there isnt a smoker in sight!!!

I highly doubt that you can compare second-hand smoke to the dust in an air vent. The stuff in cigarette smoke is worse than a few dust mites and dead skin particles. Granted, there are bad things in air, but I don't think they could top second-hand smoke.

Surely one could simply take 5 steps up wind from a smoker and resolve the entire issue all together. But no..seems like instead of taking a simple step turns into a complex act of restricting others rights just because of laziness.

Tell me. Where does one find wind in a restaurant?

[edit on 13-12-2008 by Totakeke]

Maybe we should ban drinking everywhere also? It worked so well before. I have seen more people ill from alcohol abuse than from smoking. More people get lung cancer from chemicals than from smoking. I, for one, am tired of the right wing control freaks telling me what I can do with my own body and life. If the government or special interest groups were so worried about people's health, then why don't they ban BPA in plastics or ban benzene use in the workplace? Many countries around the world have banned BPA as being illness causing in humans - not the USA! Special interest groups have ruled this country and our health for years now. Benzene has long been known to create cancer in rats and humans - used in Industrial situtations, printing workshops and dry cleaning establishments. While you are at it - have a look at the explosion of uranium mining in the west without any effort at clean-up or control of the waste entering drinkining water sources and the ground - thanks to the Bush/Cheney administration and their all out GREED motivation. Where does it end? Maybe you would like to run this country as a prison camp? It's already so close.

reply to post by prototism


Hey there, but did you read my posting or just scan it??

I made it quite clear in my original reply that I do not smoke in public places, I do not impede on others with my habit and I fail to see the arrogance in my views.

Do you drive a car?? Does it use gas?? Then your affecting the health of the person who's in the car right behind you by making them breathe the poison that comes out of your exhaust and into there car's vents.

You're as guilty as the rest of us, in one way or another, just not about this particular topic, so don't even try to get all high and mighty with me.

Good night and have a great weekend.

reply to post by vox2442


Hey Vox,

From what I've been seeing, the upped anti-smoking rhetoric is because Obama is a closet smoker and the powers that be can't stand that!!!!

They are putting pressure on him to quit and set an example for the country with the new ad blitz.

I'm pretty sure that he not going to quit anytime soon. Too much stress and pressure associated with the new transition.

Hope that I gave you good info!!

SeeYa!!

I'm pretty sure that he not going to quit anytime soon. Too much stress and pressure associated with the new transition.

Actually, he has to quit before he moves into the white house. No smoking allowed there.

reply to post by Totakeke


Ok here is a very simple experiment you can do anywhere, anyday, even in your "very few dust mite" home.

Take a white hanki and wear it over your nose and mouth. Tie it so that you are breathing through it, both breathing in and out.

Wear that all day long, on a day off when your going to be at home.

Then at the end of the day, take that off and look at the stuff the "hanki filter" collected.

If you just see a few dust mites there, I will retract my statements. If you see obvious filtering affects by the hanki, well there you go.

Then one day, try the experiment outside as you go about your day. And watch how much that hanki filter actually filters out stuff. Stay away from any smokers, which Im sure you do already. And by all means, take photos and show us all how there are only a few dustmites or how clean the air really is that you non smokers think that us smokers are the cause of your breathing health issues.

Or just sit there and rely on someone else's statistics that has never tried these experiments themselves to get the real world idea of what is really a problem.





Cheers!!!!

Regardless, I stand by my original decision. Smoking should be banned in public places but not in private. Of course I wouldn't mind if they stopped selling cigarettes, but that's not my decision to make.

reply to post by Totakeke


Do you go out and have a social drink? Perhaps shortly after your smoking ban is put into place, there will be a cry for a drinking ban too. Which IMO, should be considered first due to the fact that it causes more problems than so called second hand smoke!

I dont think that a smoking ban in public would every fly. Not because of the protests by smokers, but because other people who dont smoke but perhaps do socially drink, will see this as the first of many moves to remove more than just the right to smoke a cig.

And most likely, that will be the case, and what would happen to. Just an opinion.






Cheers!!!!

one must note that smoking has no health benefits at all - consumers have a right to buy what is on the market, but the government is in place to regulate the market to protect the consumers - if the consumer is stupid enough to continue buying death in a stick, and that choice affects their children and puts extra burden on the health system then the government should just take away the "death in a stick." this is perhaps one of the few instances where the government has a duty and/or a chance to be more smart than the people it governs.

Originally posted by Anti - Government

Over 57,000 reports worldwide have examined the link between cigarette smoking and disease, making it the most researched cause of disease ever investigated in the history of Biomedical Research

Maybe I'm just not getting this, but with over 57,000 reports over the space of many many years, did they NOT find what they were looking for? Or did they keep going until until they did find something to make the link(s)?

I am sure that extra taxes could be levied on the purchase of cigarettes to fund the increase of the police force required for any outright public smoking ban. Taxes could then be raised again to fund the oversight boards for "efficient use of policing powers". Raise taxes yet again, then we could support legal funds for the many innocent, but overzealous policemen that have erred in judgement and shot a smoker in self-defense for having smoke blown in their general direction.

Or, support your beliefs by spending your money where it is appreciated. It is WRONG to tell some.one that has slaved away to be able to open their own business how to run their business. If a bar wants to allow smokers, don't go there. If a restaurant wants to allow smokers, don't go there. If a movie theater wants to allow smokers don't go there. If they miss your dollars (pounds, euros, pesos, whatever) more than they like their targeted patrons currency, they'll get you back however they have to.

It is much like a restaurant that gets people sick with questionable food would shut down without the intervention of Big Brother. No health inspector to pay. No appeals process to pay for. No possibility of being shafted by an unhappy patron that decides to report your business as a health violation because they didn't like how they were treated (or because they asked your waitress out, and she said no).

Smoking is the current Entitlement Bandwagon. "I hear that /place of business/ is great, I want to go there, but they allow things I don't like. I know, I'll get smoking banned so I can go there! It's My Right!" Nevermind the business owner's choice, the employee's choice, the main-stay patron's choice, et cetera.

I just can't imagine shooting pool and drinking beer without a cigarette. Downright Un-American!

Originally posted by Totakeke

I'm pretty sure that he not going to quit anytime soon. Too much stress and pressure associated with the new transition.

Actually, he has to quit before he moves into the white house. No smoking allowed there.

You don't actually believe that do you???

Do you really think some staffer or secret service guy is going to say...uh, Mr. President, you really can't smoke on the premises.....you have to go across the street

Come on!!!

[edit on 13-12-2008 by wolf241e]

Originally posted by N. Tesla
one word - Prohibition.

when drinking was outlawed what happened? crime sprees, gangs formed and people died.

if people want to smoke they will.

That's it!

When(not if but when) they ban smoking I'm going to convert my attic into a Tobacco grow room and continue to smoke as well as make a killing by selling to all the smokers I know. In fact I might grow it in my window sills as well. Please note that I am an anarchist and really don't have any respect for most law anyway...

Vas

You don't actually believe that do you??? Do you really think some staffer or secret service guy is going to say...uh, Mr. President, you really can't smoke on the premises.....you have to go across the street Come on!!!

Well, since neither of us has been with the president in the white house every minute of every day I guess we can never know for sure.

Originally posted by Totakeke

I'm pretty sure that he not going to quit anytime soon. Too much stress and pressure associated with the new transition.

Actually, he has to quit before he moves into the white house. No smoking allowed there.

I heard about this, it was enacted after Bill and Monica "shared" a cigar in the Oval Office.

Do you go out and have a social drink? Perhaps shortly after your smoking ban is put into place, there will be a cry for a drinking ban too. Which IMO, should be considered first due to the fact that it causes more problems than so called second hand smoke! I dont think that a smoking ban in public would every fly. Not because of the protests by smokers, but because other people who dont smoke but perhaps do socially drink, will see this as the first of many moves to remove more than just the right to smoke a cig.

No, I don't drink. I wouldn't care if they enacted a drinking ban, but that would have a lot more implications than a smoking ban.

It's funny, reading and thinking about smoking only made me want a cigarette.

You are in a hopeless battle. Your facts are absolutely wrong, you really have know idea what you are talking about and to be honest, I would worry about all the chemicals prescription drugs seeping into your water or the ingredients in the food that you are eating.

As a smoker, I can safely say that I know more because of the fact that I have to defend myself against nonsense people like you.

This is a battle you will not win, give it up.

I no longer smoke myself. While I suffer from the effects of smoking(COPD, Asthma, emphyzema, etc.), I do not feel that smoking itself should be banned. It should still be a personal decision, much like abortion. Like with alcohol before it, why drive it underground by making it illegal. Sure, we all know what the health benefits would be. But it would firmly entrench illegal activity, and cause the Government to get into our lives even more than it is already.