Letter to editor on smoking

[Henrietta23]

Quote:
Give me till tonight to really look at it. I didn't have the time last night to give it my full attention and now I'm off to work!

 

[hoosier]

I am a nonsmoker and can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke (don't mind cigar and actually like pipe). However, I feel that business owners should have the right to choose if they want to allow smoking or not.
I went to a restaurant and requested the non-smoking section. When they said they didn't have one, I left and have never returned, and that was nearly twenty years ago. They chose what they wanted to offer to the public and I chose not to patronize their business.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
There is a small store in my hometown that has a sign posted on their door "This is a smoking establishment, enter at your own risk." I don't know if this is exactly legal right now, but they get away with it. And they are right, they do smoke all day in there.

Unfortunately, the smoke has permeated the wrappings of every food item and nonfood item in the store....so, only people who will eat Marlboro Bread or Winston candy frequent the place!

I've rented movies off them and just the movie casings being in my home caused them to leave an odor that lingered for days!

If they can get by with this, maybe other businesses can, if they post the sign? Not sure...

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

Not a smoker here, but I do not have a problem with those that choose to smoke.
I understand the reasoning behind banning smoking in a public establishment due to the danger of second hand smoke. But often wonder just how far the ban on smoking is going to go. Honestly, my biggest issue with smokers came from work. It used to peeve me off when half my dept would disappear to have a smoke break while the two of us that didnt smoke had to cover for them. Of course it was allowed to happen since the boss smoked as well.

On another note
"Eating fattening foods is a completely different situation than smoking. By choosing to eat unhealthily, a person is not in any way affecting anyone else other than themselves. No one else will stay skinny or get fat based on someone else's food choices. There really is no reason for the government to intervene here."

It really isnt that different.
Being overweight because you eat a lot of crap foods DOES affect other people. It raises health costs. Heavier people tend to be unhealthier with higher BP, diabetes, circulation and breathing problems. In an emergency they cant move as fast as a person that is thinner. More sick days are taken by people that eat unhealthy foods in abundance.
The problem is that Americans as a whole dont feel like they "need" to be told what to do. When it seems as though, in all honesty we do need to be told. Or even have it forced upon us.
I just think it stinks that because of the obesity problem everyone is going to be forced to eat foods that really do not taste all that great compared to how they tasted before.

 

[luvzmybabz]

Well I am a moker. and here is my beef a few years ago my state passed a law that for any resturant that wanted smoking section they had to enclose area and seperate ventaltion a number of places did this and these are the resturants that my family freguents. Now the state is trying to say NO SMOKING in resturants even those that put up the sperate areas etc. Some of the renovations cost big $$$ and now the goverment is wanting to throw that money away.

 

[flakey chick]

Quote:
Well actually sometimes that is the case. I have gone to several outdoor concerts where the ambient level of pot was enough to make me dizzy. "I inhaled, but I didn't smoke it."

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

Quote:
Well actually sometimes that is the case. I have gone to several outdoor concerts where the ambient level of pot was enough to make me dizzy. "I inhaled, but I didn't smoke it."

LOL - that is the only way I have ever been exposed to pot. I have never smoked it, but have inhaled it many times

 

[DuckLady]

I fully see your point birdnutz.

I smoked up until 6 years ago. My husband still does.
I hate the smell of cig smoke (except once in a while, a freshly lit cig will smell soooooo good

).

My husband is considerate where and when he smokes. Always outside and always upwind of me.

He has the right to choose to smoke. I do not nag or criticize. but if he ever chooses to quit, he will have my full support.

Like cell phone usage in public, like how you talk to people you don't know, like having a barking dog, like loud music in your car as long as you are considerate of others I have no problem with what you are doing.

Just don't stand next to me and smoke downwind, don't yap on your cell phone in a quiet restaurant, don't let your dog bark all night and really, you are the only one who wants to hear that noise from your car speakers.

And if I choose to smoke and I am being considerate of you, don't come and be rude to me. Consideration goes both ways.

But I really really want hubby to stop smoking. My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer and died 3 weeks later. I don't want to go through that horror again.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

First, I'm a non-smoker and I have asthma.

Now, having said that, smoking is a right and it's an individual's right to decide to smoke or not.

The problem with public smoking is that it affects the people around those smoking not just the smoker. Smoke is a trigger for asthma-why should I have to have an asthma attack just because someone near me decided to light up? We have an indoor public smoking ban here and it is great to know that I can go into a resturant (the stores had banned it already) and eat without worry. I just wish the ban had also included how far away from a public access door the smokers had to stay. Nothing like walking out a door into a cloud of cig smoke.--cough, wheeze,cough, wheeze, cough.

Remember too, that third hand smoke (the smell on your clothes and hair) is just as harmful as second hand smoke and please be considerate to those who choose not to smoke. Those first few minutes after your done smoking are bad.

I don't bother those who choose to smoke about it and would like smokers to just be a little more aware of where they light up.

 

[mom'sfolly]

In the mid eighties I moved from Minnesota to NY. Minnesota was one of the first states with an indoor smoking ban and at the time NY did not have a ban. The first time I went grocery shopping in NY people were smoking in the store, flicking ashes on the veggies, putting cigarettes out in the aisles and fouling the air. I wanted to move home as quickly as possible.

I say your rights end where my body begins......

But this was a discussion of a letter to the editor. I read the letter, and while I understood that you were talking about the rights of business owners and smokers; I didn't quite get the point you wanted to make. Perhaps I didn't read it carefully enough, but I read it as carefully as I read any editorial letter. I suggest you read it aloud a couple of times, often that is the best way to edit. JMHO