Pennsylvania gets a Smoking Ban (law, food, car)

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by DanniGirl

THANK GOD NO MORE RUDE SMOKERS KILLING ME AND MY CHILDREN

Stay in your own house and car and smoke yourself out!

Amen to that.

[What!]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

Well if you want to make the argument about "the public well being" we might as well ban smoking all together along with other activities that can be deemed a health hazard. Eating red meat comes to mind, driving a motorcycle, driving a bicycle , skydiving... for that matter walking down the road or even excessive typing on a keyboard. That's just a short list of activities that can be a danger to the general public. Some of them can certainly be deemed a danger to both the person engaged in the activity and others. So I'll ask you the same question you asked me, where do we draw the line?

As far as the convenience store selling cigarettes to minors, the key word there is minor. They do not have the same rights to lot of freedoms granted to adults. Not allowing the store owner to sell cigarettes to them is hardly comparable to forbidding an adult from doing an activity that is otherwise legal.



IF you have a bowling alley to come home from. I read lot on the economic impacts and bowling alleys were one of the business's hit hardest.

Hahaha, that bolded part especially makes me laugh. Smokers are quick to say, "Hey, driving a car is unhealthy. Should they ban that also?" I am always quick to counter, "While driving has many risks, it also has many plus: it can transport you from one place to another faster than a horse-drawn carriage. Smoking on the other hand has no pluses whatsoever. It is actually health-consuming for everyone, smokers and non-smokers alike."

[thecoalman]

So what's the plus for jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?

[What!]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

So what's the plus for jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?

You're making the assumption that I agree with the government all the time. I don't agree with everything the government allows or doesn't allow. If skydiving was banned I wouldn't care one way or the other. Smoking, on the other hand, is something I am glad is banned in public places.

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

So what's the plus for jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?

That's a straw man. You're not addressing the issue of what affects the PUBLIC. You're posing hypothetical situations in which the things causing potential harm (i.e., jumping out of an airplane, riding a bicycle, etc.) affects the individual(s) choosing to partake in this behavior only.

Lighting up in a restaurant affects other patrons and employees alike, meaning you may have consented to breathing in harmful carcinogens, but I sure as heck didn't.

[FightinPhils]

Good enough reasons for a smoking ban right here:

Secondhand Smoke Fact Sheet

Secondhand smoke, also know as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. It is involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers, lingers in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished and can cause or exacerbate a wide range of adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma.1

Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen).2


Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke. Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.3


Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.4


Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work are at increased risk for adverse health effects. Levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars were found to be 2 to 5 times higher than in residences with smokers and 2 to 6 times higher than in office workplaces.5


Since 1999, 70 percent of the U.S. workforce worked under a smoke-free policy, ranging from 83.9 percent in Utah to 48.7 percent in Nevada.6 Workplace productivity was increased and absenteeism was decreased among former smokers compared with current smokers.7


Eighteen states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont - as well as the District of Columbia prohibit smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars. Montana and Utah prohibit smoking in most public places and workplaces, including restaurants; bars will go smokefree in 2009. New Hampshire prohibits smoking in some public places, including all restaurants and bars. Four states - Florida, Idaho, Louisiana and Nevada - prohibit smoking in most public places and workplaces, including restaurants, but exempt stand-alone bars. Fifteen states partially or totally prevent (preempt) local communities from passing smokefree air ordinances stronger than the statewide law. Iowa, Nebraska and Oregon have passed legislation prohibiting smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars, but the laws have not taken effect yet.8


Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children. Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually.9


Secondhand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 790,000 physician office visits per year.10 Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 400,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma.11


In the United States, 21 million, or 35 percent of, children live in homes where residents or visitors smoke in the home on a regular basis.12 Approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine in the blood.

Research indicates that private research conducted by cigarette company Philip Morris in the 1980s showed that secondhand smoke was highly toxic, yet the company suppressed the finding during the next two decades.14


The current Surgeon General’s Report concluded that scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Short exposures to secondhand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack.15


Secondhand Smoke Fact Sheet - American Lung Association site (http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=35422 - broken link)

[DanniGirl]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

I'll ask you the same question I have asked others, who held a gun to your head forcing you into a restaurant that allowed smoking? If you find it so offensive and you're truly concerned about your children's health why would you patronize such an establishment to begin with?

The only resturant i know of that is NON smoking 100% is Red Robin
So I have to suffer and not enjoy a good meal because you want to smoke? It makes me SICK

Their is no way around it, it is rude nasty and should be banned from ANY PUBLIC PLACE Why would anyone want to smell like it.

Again if you want to kill yourself and destroy your lungs please stay in your own house and do it.

Not only does it kill people Smoke and cigarette butts affect the environment, resulting in air, water and land pollution

YES PLEASE KEEP DOING IT KEEP SMOING FOR YOUR OWN ENJOYMENT

[FightinPhils]

Cigarettes contain urea (pee)...and formaldehyde....and cyanide, among all sorts of poisonous chemicals.... so they're basically full of a chemical used to preserve dead people (appropriate, I'd say), rat poison, and PEE.....YUMMY!! And healthy too....I want a side of that during my next meal....

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by DanniGirl

The only resturant i know of that is NON smoking 100% is Red Robin
So I have to suffer and not enjoy a good meal because you want to smoke?

Is it my fault there is no smoking restaurant's? Complain to the management, go open your own restaurant, this is (ummm was) America you know. There's lots of options open for you to exert your freedom to do what you want.

The other thread was closed and I'm done with this one as well. I will leave you with following quote which I also posted in the other thread as its quite succinct in regards to this topic. Cheesy, I know and it's not something I generally do but I do like this one particularly:

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. ~Abraham Lincoln

[DanniGirl]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

Is it my fault there is no smoking restaurant's? Complain to the management, go open your own restaurant, this is (ummm was) America you know. There's lots of options open for you to exert your freedom to do what you want.

The other thread was closed and I'm done with this one as well. I will leave you with following quote which I also posted in the other thread as its quite succinct in regards to this topic. Cheesy, I know and it's not something I generally do but I do like this one particularly:

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. ~Abraham Lincoln

Nope your wrong your killing people and making them sick by smoking
WRONG WRONG WRONG
Maybe you should go hang out with someone who has lung cancer for a day or someone who has to walk around with oxygen for the rest of their lives. Maybe then you will see what you are doing