Should Smoking Really Be Banned Everywhere?
My heart bleeds for smokers, and not just because I used to be one. It's just a terrible time to be a smoker. God forbid a person wants to light up anywhere in public -- even outside. Ten tables away from a nonsmoker. Blowing in the other direction. With a smokeless ashtray.
I'll never forget my shock several years ago when I was in Manhattan with my husband. It had been several years since we had been there (babies have a way of stunting travel) and during that time the city had banned smoking in all public places. It was one of the first cities to do so, but I didn't know that.
It was around New Year's, and we were in SoHo. Snow had laid a beautiful white coating on the city, and it was still falling. Nothing of any consequence accumulated; it was just enough to make everything gorgeous. At any rate, we bought my husband a cigar and I decided to buy a pack of cigarettes with the intention of having just a few. Having been home with babies for five years I think I just wanted to smoke because I could.
After my initial shock in paying over $7 for a pack of cigarettes -- I'm still not over that -- I was promptly asked if I knew about the smoking policy. No, what smoking policy? You can't smoke anywhere in New York. What do you mean, I can't smoke anywhere in New York? Just what I said: You can't smoke anywhere in New York. Except outside. Nowhere? No corner of a dark hotel bar? What about my husband? Is there a cigar bar anywhere? Nowhere, he said. Except outside, of course.
I was shocked. Floored. Flabbergasted. If there was anywhere in the world I could maintain my liberties it would be New York City. Alas, those days are gone. So my husband and I were banned to the elements. I opted not to smoke -- out of sheer defiance and because I hate smoking outside -- but my husband smoked his cigar and we bound through the streets of New York. He looked so debonair in his long coat and hat -- with the snow falling all around him. Down by Washington Square Park, the scene was reminiscent of the 1940s.
Bottom line: I understand banning smoking on airplanes. I understand banning it in restaurants or even cars with kids in them. But everywhere? Preposterous. I don't smoke anymore, and I hate being around the stuff in close corners, but to ban it altogether is just wrong. The few smokers I know are left to feel criminal if they light up anywhere in the vicinity of another human being.
Something is very wrong with that.
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Second hand smoke in the home has proven adverse effects on children . Parents who smoke around their infants and toddlers are no only increase the chance that their children will become ill (primarily respiratory problems), the toxins have been associated with a higher frequency of learning problems once these children reach school age. In addition, the children of people who smoke in the home are much more likely to become smokers themselves. I believe that cigarettes need to be either banned completely, or excessively priced (by manufacturers charging more or by extremely high taxation). With regard to taxing cigarettes, I believe that the way to go would be a value added tax such that the seeds or seedlings sold to farms are taxed, the leave sold to manufacturers is taxed, the wholesale cost is taxed, and the consumer is taxed).
There are cigar bars in the city that you and your husband could've gone to to smoke cigarettes and cigars. Also, many restaurants and bars have outdoor gardens in the back that allow smoking .
Yes, I agree it's a shame that there aren't more places to smoke, but this law was to help protect those that have to work in those areas 8 hours a day.
I once spoke with a friend from Switzerland about smoking and describe myself as the black sheep/social pariah when I spend time with family in Texas; no one else smokes or has quit. She said that it's quite the opposite in Europe; you're a pariah if you don't smoke.
Quite interesting.
No, smoking shouldn't be banned everywhere as long as people are polluting my lungs with their SUVs filled with screaming brats and their offensive colognes and perfumes.
Actually, people should be thrilled with smokers as we pay a huge tax on our filthy habit (which taxes benefit you) higher insurance rates (which help foot the bill for your medical procedures).
Give us a break for crying out loud. Hold your breath as you walk by a smoker if it bothers you that bad. I have to hold my breath every time I walk by an Abercrombie & Fitch or a the perfume section of a department store. Get over it.