Smoking -- attitudes in Chicagoland (environment, work, hospital)

[Avengerfire]

I think the most ridiculous part of this law is it covers private clubs including Veterans clubs that have bars like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion.

These men have seen the worst sides of human actions. They have seen the unspeakable. They have seen their buddies blown to bits,tortured,drown,...they have seen their buddies die next to them. They have seen children killed and harmed. They have been in seas where the water ran blood from all of the carnage.These men have lost limbs,eye sight,hearing,been tortured,have shrapnel in them,and suffered mental trauma. On top of this many have faced harsh treatment from their own fellow citizens of the good old U.S.A. I dont think I need to go into anymore details.

Now, these men that have sacrificied their lives,bodies,and mental state for our country in a war that was either popular or unpopular cannot even smoke in their own damn club. WTF is wrong with this picture? It just shows the anti-smoking faction and the state elected officials are out of control.

[FormerStocktonian]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

If you look at the cigarette tax revenue (even though taxes have gone up dramatically over the last 5 years ) the total revenue from taxes has been going down the last couple years. They hit the plateau when cigarettes were about $5 a pack(in Chicago). Indiana,Wisconsin,Iowa, and Kentucky are taking the money away. Many people I know get cigarettes from out of state and away from Cook County every chance they can.

The whole state government of Illinois need to be thrown out of office along with select county and city officials.

I will never go to a bar,casino,or OTB again in Illinois.

I go to Wisconsin to buy my cigarettes. That's the joy of living close to two states.

Anyone heard of the new Illinois law where cigarettes have to be produced with a special "burn out" paper. It is supposed to burn out the cigarette if it hasn't been puffed on for several seconds.

SJ-R.COM - Cigarette law will focus on fire safety (broken link)

WTF is this now? Come on Illinois, we are not little children here. Okay, this seems kind of odd, now we have to puff harder and more often that unusal to not have our cigarettes burn out? Nice health measure. And it also states that this will yet again increase the costs of our cigarettes. See, now we have the state telling companies how to produce goods.

Fire safety? I thought we learned that in elementry schoool? It's all to protect us right? Yeah, okay, whatever. Notice how this law was never really put out there to the public? When are people going to start taking responsibiliy for their own actions without having the government setting babysitting laws for us. From what I hear, the cigarettes taste like crap. Maybe another measure to force smokers to quit? I think so.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Those cigarettes will probably cause more people to travel state lines. Can't be good for Illinois to lose revenue like that, not just in the cigarettes, but also the sin tax attached to them.

According to Google Maps (which I know isn't always accurate) Lincoln, Illinois (which seems about center in Illinois) to Covington, Indiana is about 2 hours. That's a fair distance, but if you're going to buy cigarettes seems like you could go into Indiana and stock up for however long you need to. Lincoln to Hannibal, Missouri is about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Theoretically you could travel to either state and stock up on cigarettes if you needed to.

Google Maps also says that it's about half an hour from Chicago to Whiting, Indiana. Chicago to Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin is about an hour and 15 minutes. Chicago to Michigan appears to be about an hour and a half.

So, it looks like just about anywhere in Illinois you could get to another state in under 3 hours. That's still a long distance, but not if you're buying cigarettes for a long period of time (I assume).

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by FormerStocktonian

I go to Wisconsin to buy my cigarettes. That's the joy of living close to two states.

Anyone heard of the new Illinois law where cigarettes have to be produced with a special "burn out" paper. It is supposed to burn out the cigarette if it hasn't been puffed on for several seconds

A friend of mine was just complaining about that. He bought a pack of Marlboro and he thought they were bad because they "kept going out". It was only until his other friend informed him of the new paper they were using. I havent had a pack like that yet, but from what I hear theyre really annoying.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by STLCardsBlues1989

Google Maps also says that it's about half an hour from Chicago to Whiting, Indiana.

Chicago and Whiting actually border each other. It's not uncommon along the Chicago/Indiana border and along the state line in the south suburbs to see a gas station right across the state line on the Indiana side. Gas is a lot cheaper in Indiana, and many nearby Illinois residents drive across the line to fill up and to buy smokes.

[FormerStocktonian]

Originally Posted by Drover

Chicago and Whiting actually border each other. It's not uncommon along the Chicago/Indiana border and along the state line in the south suburbs to see a gas station right across the state line on the Indiana side. Gas is a lot cheaper in Indiana, and many nearby Illinois residents drive across the line to fill up and to buy smokes.

That's so true. And think of the additional revenue Indiana casinos will obtain because of our cigarette ban. Like I said, I myself drive to Wisconsin to stock up on cigarettes so I don't have to buy them in Illinois.

But it just annoys me how the our state government is now mandating how cigarettes are produced. Okay, fine, there are cases where unattended lit cigarettes have been known to cause house fires. But I believe that is just pure ignorance on that smoker. I always put my cigarette out by running it under the faucet with water and I have an ashtry with a self extinguisher built in. If I'm in the car, same thing, self extinguish portable ashtray. It's called being responsible!! Taking responsibilty for my own actions.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Congrats to Indiana and any other bordering states. They're going to get some extra revenue now.

[Frank_Carbonni]

Originally Posted by sukwoo

I don't believe this is true. There is a substantial body of scientific work demonstrating the dangers of second-hand smoke.

Passive smoking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A vast majority of secondhand smoke studies have a confidence interval too wide to make a clear conclusion from them alone. Also, those studies mentioned are also mostly case control studies, taking people who are already sick and seeing what they have in common. Cohort studies are better because they follow are large group of people for an extended period of time and keep track of their behaviors and what they are exposed to. They then see who gets sick and who doesn't get sick.

Studies on direct exposure to secondhand smoke are less promising for the anti-smoking movement. A study conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory found that on a yearly average non-smokers who work in smoky environments only breathe in six cigarettes a year, which raising serious doubts as to the plausibility of risks of secondhand smoke.

And for the risk itself. Lung cancer is what most of the studies focus on and most government agencies and anti-smoking groups say secondhand smoke causes about a 20-30% increase in the risk of lung cancer for people who are heavily exposed over their lifetime.

I have seen different rates of lung cancer ranging from 5-8 per 100,000, let's say the rate is 6 per 100,000 for the sake of argument. Let's say you work as a waiter in a smoky diner and you work their for about 20 or 30 years, assuming the science is solid (which it isn't as much as what you think), you would have a lung cancer risk of 7.2-7.8 per 100,000 for working in that smoky diner. So you would have a 1.2-1.8 per 100,000 risk of contracting lung cancer from working in the smoky diner. Hardly a major risk.

[aragx6]

Very well researched and written. Thank you.

[Don Vito]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Last time I checked it is not illegal to buy or smoke cigarettes.
If the states are so worried about peoples health they would ban the manufacture and sale of cigarettes. They would make the Tobacco plant illegal. They wont do that, because they are to busy balancing their budgets off of smokers habits.

All we wanted was to be able to smoke in bars. It didnt even have to be every bar. I wouldnt have cared if 75% of bars were non-smoking. They could have allowed some bars to just be for smokers,occasional smokers,and people that dont mind being around smoke. But that is too easy isnt it?

Government has to impose its will over everyone at all times.Welcome to the U.S.S.A

Liking the oxycontin big boy?

no, no, no, and yes