Smoking bans: Good or bad?

Considering cigarettes are a proven health hazard to people other than just smokers, I'm surprised its taken this long to start happening.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Arainach

Oliver Wendell Holmes once pointed out that "The right for me to wave my fist ends where the other man's face begins". Your freedom to do stupid activities ends when they harm other people. And smoking in public harms those around you. Drinking is not directly harmful to anyone but the immediate person. Doing things like driving while drunk IS, and that's why they're illegal.

THANK you Arainach. Yet another instance where I agree 100% with you. They don't occur often :P but when you're right, you're right.

I am absolutely baffled at the amount of people on these forums that refuse to believe the PROVEN dangers of secondhand smoke.

As far as restaurants, I should have a right to enter any restaurant I want without a danger to myself. Smokers can do the same thing with a smoking ban in restaurants. You do NOT have a right to pose a health hazard to those around you.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Eleo

And like I said, then you'd need evidence that it's significantly harmful.

They've had evidence for AT LEAST the past 20 years that this is so. Damn.

If you want to just ignore proven facts then I guess nobody can debate this.

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

Originally Posted by Eleo

There's nothing proven about it. Why don't you do your own research instead of believing what you hear in commercials.

You are completely mindboggling. You are trying to tell me that the same thing that contains something like 200 different carcinogens when inhaled - mind you, not after being exhaled by a smoker - isn't going to do me any harm?

Please, go on living in your little fantasy land where the rules of logic no longer apply.

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

Originally Posted by ieatjackets

I think the greatest problem with second-hand smoke bans is the attitude of the people supporting them. "I don't smoke, so I don't mind the ban." WTF, world? Are you so antagonistic against smokers that you don't care about their civil rights anymore? And that's what this boils down to, not public good, it's a huge infringement of civil rights.

What the hell are you going on about civil rights for? Smoking is not any sort of civil right. This isn't even a civil rights issue.

Now apart from that, your attitude bothers me. You don't seem to give a crap about anybody else and the potential for harm to come to them through your filthy habit. I don't have a problem with you smoking. I do have a problem with you smoking around me.

If you, Eleo, and whoever else want to continue to ignore proven facts, especially something like what Arainach has posted, then go ahead and do so. But don't act so surprised when nobody else wants to inhale:

Acetaldehyde
Acetic Acid
Acetone
Acetylene
Acrolein
Acrylonitrile
Aluminum
Aminobiphenyl
Ammonia
Anabasine
Anatabine
Aniline
Anthracenes
Argon
Arsenic
Benz(a)anthracene
Benzene
Benzo(a)pyrene
Benzo(b)fluoranthene
Benzo(j)fluoranthene
Butadiene
Butane
Cadmium
Campesterol
Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Sulfide
Catechol
Chromium
Chrysene
Copper
Crotonaldehyde
Cyclotenes
DDT/Dieldrin
Dibenz(a,h)acridine
Dibenz(a,h)anthracene
Dibenz(a,j)acridine
Dibenzo(a,l)pyrene
Dibenzo(c,g)carbazole
Dimenthylhydrazine
Ethanol
Ethylcarbamate
Fluoranthenes
Fluorenes
Formaldehyde
Formic Acid
Furan
Glycerol
Hexamine
Hydrazine
Hydrogen cyanide
Hydrogen sulfide
Indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene
Indole
Isoprene
Lead
Limonine
Linoleic Acid
Linolenic Acid
Magnesium
Mercury
Methane
Methanol
Methyl formate
Methylamineethylchrysene
Methylamine
Methylnitrosamino
Methylpyrrolidine
n-Nitrosoanabasine
n-Nitrosodiethanolamine
n-Nitrosodiethylamine
n-nitrosodimethylamine
n-Nitrosoethyl methylamine
n-Nitrosomorpholine
n-Nitrosopyrrolidine
Naphthalene
Naphthylamine
Neophytadienes
Nickel
Nicotine
Nitric Oxide
Nitrobenzene
Nitropropane
Nitrosamines
Nitrosonomicotine
Nitrous oxide phenols
Nomicotine
Palmitic acid
Phenanthrenes
Phenol
Picolines
Polonium-210
Propionic acid
Pyrenes
Pyrrolidine
Quinoline
Quinones
Scopoletin
Sitosterol
Skatole
Solanesol
Stearic acid
Stigmasterol
Styrene
Titanium
Toluene
Toluidine
Urethane
Vinyl Chloride
Vinylpyridine
URL

into our lungs against our will.

Plus about 4,000 more chemicals. Most people like to avoid unecesarily inhaling carcinogens and other detrimental chemicals straight into our lungs.

So excuse us for expecting you not to infringe on our rights. Me choosing to shoot Lysol up my nose, as you mentioned, is far different from me having to inhale 4,000+ toxic chemicals because you don't want to be so inconvienienced as to have and wait until you get outside or get home to smoke.

And on top of just standard health hazards, you are posing a DEADLY risk to people with asthma, and to a slightly lesser extent, those with severe allergies.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by ieatjackets

I'm glad you didn't really read my post.

Nice useless list of chemicals. You want me to list the chemicals released by burning gasoline in your car? Or the chemicals released into the air from various kinds of deodorants? Yeah, ok, thanks.

Smoking isn't a civil right? Damn.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=civil%20right

http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/amend13.htm

http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/amend14.htm

http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/amend15.htm

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/...w/civilr19.htm

Yeah, sorry, doesn't look like smoking is covered there.

Civil rights deal with social and economic equality.

Useless? Those are about 100 of the worst ones in cigarrete smoke. Most of which either cause cancer or birth defects. There's over 4,000 total. Thanks for ignoring 20+ years of research.

You people are some of the most selfish people on the planet. Too fucking conceited to give a shit about the health of people around you, just so you don't have to be inconvienienced.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Nothing will happen. They just want to ignore proven research and facts so they can have the peace of mind of not realizing they are screwing everybody around them over.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Lipid

(Not having read the previous posts, Ill just say this

I do not smoke.

I do not care that others smoke.

People in this country (the USA) are becoming a society of pussies and weaklings. (Regarding a lot more than simple smoking bans)

Why impose a smoking ban: let these idiots kill themselves off. Hell, put more chemicals in cigarettes to speed the process up.

They can kill themselves off if they want. That's their choice. And nobody is banning smoking. They are banning smoking in public places so that people who do choose not to screw over their health aren't having others do exactly that to them.

Quite frankly I think anybody now who picks up the habit has to be a total moron. In the past? Sure, I can understand that. Wasn't much information about the numerous carcinogens present in cigarettes. But now? Yep. Agreed. Add more chemicals to get rid of the idiots in society.

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

Originally Posted by Eleo

Since I am not even a smoker, I'd like to know, how the fuck am I screwing everybody around me over? By arguing on a forum?

Apologies. Assumed incorrectly.

The point still stands though, for most people.

You can also be a genius about certain things but a complete moron about other things. Smokers (at least ones that picked up the habit in recent years) are devoid in the common sense department, and nothings going to convince me other wise. Hell, it doesn't even take common sense to realize that inhaling several hundred carcinogens into your lungs is going to end up killing you.

And you've touched on everything just by ignoring facts that those links prove.

Jam it back in, in the dark.