BANNING smoking in bars and restaurants? PLEASE help?

Question

I have to write a 2 minute speech and I chose this topic. I dont think we should ban it.

Can you give me a link to a website that gives me good info on the situation? I really want some information to help back me up on this speech.

Most important, can you give me some statistics on the % of drinkers who smoke? I think this would be a great way to prove my point. Please give me a link. :):):)

Answer 1

This is not an answer to your question...so bear with me. The angle of your speech is all wrong. If this is a debate, your opponent will wipe the floor with you.

The reason for smoking bans, has nothing to do with whether people who drink, also smoke. That is already very common, in fact, a lot of social or occasional smokers, only do so in the bars, or when they are drinking. So you can find all kinds of support for your topic.

The reason for the legislation and the bans...is to protect people who work in restaurants and bars from second hand smoke, whether they smoke themselves or not. When you work a full shift in a smoky place, you are really getting a lot of second hand smoke, now multiply that out times a full time or even part time work week, for the amount of time that the person is employed there. That is a lot of tar that was inhaled without the person having any choice, except not to work there at all.

Theoretically a person should be able to go to work in a safe environment. Knowing that there are risks in any job, there have to be systems in place to protect employees from these risks. Short of serving you food and drinks wearing a respirator, and having a big fan blowing the smoke OUT...there isn't much a bartender, hostess, or waiter can do to fight smoke...and even that is an unfair situation because it kind of ruins the atmosphere of the establishment...who wants to be served food and drinks by someone who looks like they are about to perform surgery? Who wants to eat and drink in a place where the noise from exhaust systems is so loud they can't have a conversation? This adds up to limited business for the establishment, and unfair tipping for the staff. And if the precautions aren't taken to make workplaces safer, then we are in a sweatshop kind of mentality where only the most desperate folks will work there, in unsafe conditions at their own risk. We all know who ends up taking these jobs. Often it is the most desperate of all...illegals, brand new immigrants, and down on their luck types who are just trying to exist on such a job, or those who are starting fresh with nowhere to go but up. And of course, even though these are jobs that no one else would want with their safety hazards...someone will have the balls to say that these folks are "stealing jobs from the American worker."

It is just a lose-lose and really, I think the only way around it is to put the butts OUT inside bars and restaurants.

All this, and I have been a very heavy smoker. I used to think it sucked too. Unfair, just another right taken away, wahhhhh. (Also not on a soapbox about smoking just because I recently quit...) I have just come to realize that it isn't always about what I want.

I think a very good compromise for many restaurants and bars, is to offer govt funded small business loans, enabling them to remodel their businesses to have outdoor or rooftop seating with pavillions, etc...beer gardens and such, where people who wish to smoke can do so in a place that has natural ventilation. This would allow business owners who can afford it to set the stage for a new type of establishment, and the little guys who can't keep up? to borrow and update so they can keep from being choked out by their more wealthy competition.

All this PLUS we forget that a great deal of the public with desire to eat and drink outside the home are NON-smokers. There are a great many of these people who simply have nowhere to go unless you eat fast food, or go to a kiddie place. No bars certainly. If bar and restaurant owners want to see a big spike in their business, the best way to do it is to eliminate smoking in their buildings. This would bring in all the people who have been longing to go out on the town without having to deal with the smoke. Any remodelling done to a restaurant or bar, even with the help of a high interest loan, would pay for itself in a matter of years due to the new customers who come in.

Answer 2

While I do not condone smoking, I will not ridicule or judge somebody else for doing so. I am not a smoker and have never been. I am a bit allergic to smoke and it will give me an asthma fit more times than not. I have really enjoyed going to restaurants much more since California has banned smoking in public establishments. Minnesota has gone further than California has with providing smoking areas outside with heaters, etc. There was a bit of fuss when the no smoking law was first implemented, but now I do not hear of any complaints. People will just simply step outside for a few minutes and have smoke or they just wait until they get to their vehicles or houses, etc. Smokers have the right to smoke if they want to. It is their own bodies after all. On the other hand I have the right to a smoke free environment and to not have my health impacted by someone else's smoke. Where do you draw the line? Either way you go it will impact one group or the other. By the way, congratulations on quitting smoking. I know it is hard to do. My grandmother was a multi-pack per day smoker who never could quit.

Answer 3

Small business owners of bars especially are hurt by the ban. As someone mentioned, they can leave if a place is smoking. So why legislate it. An owner will eventually do what's right for business. Many non-smoking businesses popped up before the all-out ban here in Colorado. No one is forced to be in a smoking bar or restaraunt. People can leave. Government buildings completely different, because people have to enter the building-there's only one government. Private business is about choices. There was a small bar here that estimated 90% of his customers smoked so his business is dying. Condo units-that are owned-are now allowed to ban smoking even if it wasn't previously in the rules when the place was bought. A judge ruled, even though smoke was not actually in the other unit, the smell alone was a "nuisance". Like everything, we are over zealous if there's something we don't like. If we go to a non-smoking bar, why would we care if the bar down the street is smoking?

Lots on the internet, do some searches...

Answer 4

If you go to the website of the American Cancer Society, you will find a lot of information on statistics for smokers. I am not sure if they have all the statistics you want, but they can assist you a great deal.

I am a smoker, and I personally believe that smoking should be banned in restaurants, because most smokers do not care where they blow their smoke. There is nothing more irritating to me than to be trying to eat and have some idiot blow their smoke across my table. It is not hard to blow your smoke upward toward the fans and whatnot that restaurants have to diffuse the smoke, it is just laziness and uncaring people that don't think about it.

As far as bars go, I don't go to them, but I've heard it can get pretty bad. If the same idiots that blow their smoke at others in a restaurant go to bars, then I'm sure it is bad and should be banned if the owner sees fit.


I have to comment on musicimp's comment about secondhand smoke. It is a pet peave with me that everyone thinks that it has been proven that secondhand smoke is hazardous to those around. However, there is absolutely no scientific facts that support this claim. Every single study about secondhand smoke has been conducted by or funded by the American Cancer Society. It is obvious how they want the studies to turn out.

It has been proven by numerous independent surveys that you can make any study or poll have the exact results you want them to. That is why there are four number one killers in the United States depending on who does the study.

Drugs-according to law enforcement officials and the government

Drunk Driving- according to MADD, SADD, and again law enforcement officials

Guns- according to those opposed to the right to bear arms, and once again law enforcement officials

And last but not least SMOKING- according to the American Cancer Society, but at least not the law enforcement officials this time.

Answer 5

You may find this answer a little strange, but trust me, it will back-up your case. Contact your local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. Have them give the local meeting list. It will specifically list all the meetings in your area and the number of them that are non-smoking. Do not be surprised if you only find one or two one the list out of 50-100 weekly meetings. Another place would be your local state restaurant association. They maintain that banning smoking in their establishments reduces their revenues. Also, try your local adult entertainment lobby group. They should take the same position.

Answer 6

I think restaurants would be ok smoke free, but bars no, thats what a bars for, to smoke, drink

but what is really not good, is what I heard on the news, some city wants to ban smoking in the whole city.

Thats not right, thats like communism.

I don't smoke, I think it's stupid, but don't take away all our rights until we live in a communist country.

Answer 7

I'm an ex smoker who went to bars. Since I quit 6 years ago they changes the laws and I'm glad there are places I can go and not have the smell of smoke permeating my hair and clothes and a hangover is bad enough, but the cigarette smoke makes you feel like you have an anvil on your chest. The non smoking places are doing quite a rousing business. the smoking bars are few and far between now.

Answer 8

As a smoker i think the ban on smoking in public places is brilliant. I have experienced it for about a year now in Scotland and agree with its introduction as why should i force my smoke on non smokers, also i find pubs a more pleasant place to be in now.
if you are looking for info against the ban though try the FOREST website

Answer 9

It should be up to the bar owner rather or not if people can smoke in his or her bar. What would be wrong with smoking and non smoking bars. I don't like to be around fat ugly people but i don't think that i should have the right to tell the store owner to ban them. Personally i would rather take my chances of dying from second hand smoke than giving up even one ioda of freedom.

Answer 10

The issue has nothing to do with percentages.

The issue has to do with how much damage second-hand smokes causes, and whether smokers should be allowed to poison the air in enclosed public spaces. Any more than people would be allowed to spray cyonide or botulism into the air in public, just becasue they want to take it themselves.

You might guess that my view is no. But that's the argument you need to defeat to prove your point. It's not a matter of how many people want to do it. That would be like deciding whether to legalize child pornography based solely on the number of people who like looking at child porn.

To prove your point, you need to explain why people should be allowed to pour toxic chemicals into the air in an enclosed public place, and why the government doesn't have the right to prohibit that based on healthy and safety concerns.