Smoking bans: Good or bad?

It's a good thing, as long as they also ban fatty foods, alcohol and everything else that isn't good for you and annoys other people. If they don't do that then they are hypocrites.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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You do realize that fatty foods and alcohol only affect the person eating or drinking them, right? Smoking affects EVERYONE AROUND YOU.

Fat people are a drain on the NHS and by extension all the taxpayers in the U.K. Ever heard of drink driving?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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I've heard of drunk driving. Still doesn't apply, though.

How many people are killed as a result of drunk driving?

How many people are killed by second-hand smoke?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Since alcohol is responsible for at least as many fatalities as smoking, they should either both be lawful or illegal.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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Drunk Driving is ILLEGAL.

Yet widespread. In 2004 in the U.S.A drunk driving was responsible for over 42,000 deaths.

A Harley-Davidson motorcycle owner can annoy the **** out of people with his insanely loud exhaust. A pet owner can annoy others by walking his barking, sh*tting, territory marking dog in public. The homeless can beg for change, Christians can pass flyers out in public, street musicians can butcher songs, and Rosie O'donnel has her own show...

I can't smoke...

I was speaking idiomatically.

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We're not talking about what causes more fatalities. You're reading too much into this. We're talking about how smoking directly affects other people in restaurants who aren't smoking. And how it affects them EVERY TIME they go into a restaurant or bar.

I'd rather be slightly damaged by smoke then injured or killed because of alcohol. Have these people never heard of non-smoking areas? Couldn't they go to a restaurant that doesn't permit smoking.

3,000 deaths a year by second-hand smoke.

Over 42,000 deaths a year by alcohol.

I'm not agaisnt a smoking ban, I'm against a ban on one dangerous intoxicant which disrupts other peoples lives, but not another.

How ya doing, buddy?

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000602.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000707.html

You could go to a non-smoking restaurant.

FELIPE NO

Yep, they exist in my area, they piss me off too because I can't smoke in them.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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And smoking in public harms those around you.

Still to be proven. From a utilitarian P.O.V alcohol is much worse than smoking.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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I can link to a 100 more government reports and scientific studies/experiments which say the contrary.

Please do, the articles may be 6 years old, but Straight Dope is pretty respected.

There's nowhere I can't reach.