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I’ve noticed since moving from a car-centric city to a pedestrian one that smokers on the sidewalk are suddenly on my radar. I have found my strategies for avoiding second-hand smoke – walk fast, walk slow or cross the street. Still I fantasize of breathing free when running my errands. I know others share my dream of limiting exposure to environmental smoke, as this is a pretty impressive list of cities which ban smoking in their parks: http://www.no-smoke.org/pdf/SmokefreeParks.pdf.
Don’t get me wrong: I am not rabidly anti-smoking. I do get it – life has so few pleasures and you're being chased into smaller and smaller venues to enjoy one of the few that remain. Would it be possible to have a respectful discussion in which we could find win/win solutions that accommodate smokers’ ability to light up and non-smokers rights to not breath their second-hand smoke? I’d be especially interested in hearing from those who live in cities or towns with restrictive outdoor smoking ordinances – how has that worked for you smokers and non-smokers alike? Do any of your cities or towns go as far as limiting smoking on sidewalks, and how has that worked?
I think that NYC now has a lot more restrictions on where you can smoke now. As far as where I live, I never had that problem but if I choose to live in a city I wouldn't like the idea of someone giving me second hand smoke. I think that it should be ok for people to smoke in areas where there is a lot of open space but it is necessary to have restrictions on smoking in close quarters or sidewalks, because it isn't possible for someone to pass by another person who is smoking to get to a destination when the smoker is between him and his destination. However, I think they should be able to smoke in bars or whatnot because it would be much more socially acceptable there and they need to be able to do it somewhere otherwise that might be too much restriction on freedom.
I'm not so concerned about smokers on sidewalks. What would be nice, though, would be if more states would once again allow smoking inside buildings, ideally in set-aside, sufficiently ventilated dedicated smoking rooms. Here in Minneapolis it's often unpleasant to walk the streets of downtown, as there are clusters of people outside the doors to the office buildings trying to cram in a smoke break, even in the winter. It would be nicer for everyone if they could just do it inside. The smoking ordinances designed to make things better inside have made it worse for me as a pedestrian. Same thing about the smoking in bars issue; many now have outside patios on the sidewalk, and that's where the smokers set up; there's one that's directly adjacent to the bus stop, and with so many smokers concentrated right there puffing away it's tough to avoid it while waiting for the bus. In years past they were able to just sit in the bar and smoke.
I would be supportive of regulations to limit smoking at bus stops, or at least in bus shelters, where the smoke collects and it's not as easy to simply move away.
In parks, though, I have no problem with people smoking, as long as they're not throwing their butts on the ground. I have more pressing quality of life and environmental concerns. (Although I do support the banning of smoking in playgrounds)
I don't smoke and don't like the smell of smoke, but I think it's unreasonable to ban smoking from public sidewalks.
Give me a break already. every time with the smoking. it's always more and more ridiculous. Can't smoke near a door. can't smoke in outdoor seating. can't smoke in your own car. Once you anti-smoking people have won, what's next? Red meat? Alcohol?
nothing personal to you, jm02, you seem nice enough, but really, this stuff drives me nuts and i rarely ever smoke. what ever happened to live and let live? you said it, life is short and hard, why can't people just do their thing? i know what you are thinking, "yeah but second hand smoke is an infringement on MY freedom." yeah, maybe, maybe not so much though. i really don't think little bits of second hand smoke here and there are such a big deal.
besides, it's all give and take. gotta give a little some places, if you aren't flexible you will break. we all have different preferences, and there's nothing good that can come of forcing people to live your way just because you think it's right. it's a short time we're all on here and stuff like this is just gonna rile people up.
anyways, sorry to ride ya, my mom talks like you and since i can't go off on her i take it out on you instead...
I get it - I ain't trying to take away your smokes. I'm looking for a win/win. For you it's me putting up with some passing 2nd hand smoke. If that's as good as it gets, that's as good as it gets. I'm just wondering if anyone out there has lived with some of these more restrictive outdoor ordinances and found that they worked well for everyone.
Now go give your mom a kiss.
Last edited by Pine to Vine; 03-15-2011 at 09:36 PM..
I personally hate sidewalk smoking because I have terrible allergies to smoke. My husband and I used to travel to NYC very frequently. By the end of the day, he was throwing up in all the trashcans and I had a migraine. I'm sure the air pollution was a contributor, but walking down 8th avenue was sometimes like walking into a smoking lounge. One corner after another foggy with cigarette smoke.
My father is/was a smoker (he's in the process of quitting - 4 weeks off at this point), and he can smoke all he wants in the yard or his car or his workshop. (Universal health care might change people's feelings about smoking once everyone is paying for the chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and cancer treatments; but that's another debate.) I'm not trying to outlaw smoking, but it is very frustrating to have a day "in the city" ruined by the toxins blowing in one's face.
What's the solution? I don't know. I do like uptown's idea of indoor facilities like at airports. Give people a place to smoke - a roof, an indoor facility - but not in my face.
I'm a smoker, and I'm personally glad they're slowly forcing me to quit ... by limiting all the places I can smoke. I do smoke on sidewalks sometimes, but I try to be aware of when people are headed into my path. I just bought my e-cigg kit the other day, so hopefully it will help me kick this nasty habit.
I have been anti-smoking since I was a child. The smell makes me nauseous and the smoky air in buildings gave me breathing problems as a child. Fortunately neither of my parents smoked. The strange thing is that when outside the smoke didn't bother me. I do support the idea of indoor smoking areas as long as they are isolated from the general public. Outside I do not see how smoking can be stopped. I have had employees who smoked and I would converse with them outside, at a distance of course. In a city the pollution from vehicles would be far in excess of that from tobacco smoking.
I have been anti-smoking since I was a child. The smell makes me nauseous and the smoky air in buildings gave me breathing problems as a child. Fortunately neither of my parents smoked. The strange thing is that when outside the smoke didn't bother me. I do support the idea of indoor smoking areas as long as they are isolated from the general public. Outside I do not see how smoking can be stopped. I have had employees who smoked and I would converse with them outside, at a distance of course. In a city the pollution from vehicles would be far in excess of that from tobacco smoking.
At last, someone sees why the majority of these posts are so ridiculous, at least from the point of polluting the air that people breathe outside.
I don't like people smoking whilst walking on crowded sidewalks because of the risk of getting burned!
That's not very modest at all. That's a major infringement.
Second hand smoke, in the context of the brief exposure you may be subjected to while choosing to walk passed someone on the sidewalk, is completely harmless. (I believe it to be harmless in almost all cases, indoors or not, but that's a different discussion). What you're suggesting is using the force of law to keep people from partaking in a perfectly legal activity on public property - property they have just as much right to use as you do - for no reason other than you don't like it. That's oppression, and it goes against the principles that this country was founded on.
Live and let live. If you don't like cigarette smoke, avoid smokers. It's not as if they jump out of nowhere - you can see them on a sidewalk from half a block away, and have every opportunity to alter your route to avoid the smoke.
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