Smoking Ban in restaurants and bars?

Question

Why, if you support a smoking ban, do you want to keep smokers from lighting up period. Why isn't an air filtration / exhaust system good enough?

For those that want to ban smoking in bars - why don't you stop going to bars that allow smoking? If you can't stand the smoke - stop going there.

I guess I'm just PO'd that there are less and less places where I can smoke. All because people have some weird need to ban things they don't like.

Salt can kill us. Let's ban that. How about fat? Or chocolate. Or the internet.... I've heard people dying from using it too much.

I think you see my point.

If I'm a restaurant owner (that happens to smoke). Why can't I decide that my patrons can smoke in my restaurant. If you don't like it - you can not spend your money in my restaurant.

Why can't that be enough. Why must there be laws to ban smoking????

Answer 1

I detest cigarette smoke. Nothing like the polution of an unfiltered menthol drifting over your prime rib to ruin a good meal. Second only to that is the sound of a smoker's hack echoing through the smoking section. I LOVE going into restaraunts that don't allow smoking. That being said, it should be up to the proprieter what sort of clientell he wishes to cater to. The free market will decide the matter. If enough people are stop showing up because they can't stand the stench of cigarette smoke -- or because they can't stand not being able to light up after munching -- the decision will be made by the bottom line. Besides, if your health is so delicate you can't be around a cigarette or two, you probably shouldn't be eating out anyway!

Answer 2

Because it is hurting other people. Why should I not go to my favorite bar and play pool and have a beer, because there is several someones over there smoking, hurting my lungs? I bartended for many years and dealt with that and now I have chronic asthma. Should I just send them the bill? I think that if they could get a filtration system and exhaust system that was affordable and worked 100% then great. I would still say they need to make a smoking area or lounge. I think it is a weird need to have smoke in your lungs to be happy. I don't think it is weird to want to be healthy and to enjoy a meal or a good time without smoke in my face. What if I just stood around and sprayed bug spray in a bar? It is my right. It might not kill you right away, but it might eventually .....

Answer 3

What I want to know is if cigarettes kill people why do a lot of smokers I see live up to 70, 80, even 90 years of age? I think the dangerous cigarettes are the newer off brand kind. But outside of that, I am not a smoker and all these anti-smoking commercials and laws annoy the heck out of me! I become angry when I see them because it is so stupid! Alcohol if you look at it does more damage to not only the drinker but sometimes people around it! It tears apart families, relationships, if someone gets into a car while drunk off of alcohol they can not only harm themselves but also someone else if they were to get in the way, and it causes people to fight because they are drunk and starting trouble with others. I don't see any of that with cigarettes.

I have been around second-hand smoke all my life by more than one smoker. I have never smoked in my life either so out goes the if you live around smokers you will grow up most likely to smoke for me. I get doctor checkups every now and then and I am above average healthy. So I am failing to see the dangers of smoking at least for me. I understand people with asthma and other lung, heart or breathing problems will have a problem with it. But if that is the case then why are the willingly going to a bar where people do smoke? Bars = smokers and drinkers.

As far as I see it, drinking is a lot more dangerous than smoking.

Answer 4

You can smoke outside. No one stops you there. Unless you are on a beach in CA. Hell I like the rule. Food tastes better, beer tastes better, everything tastes and smells better when you rid it of smoke. You want to crap up your lungs at home, in your car, on the sidewalk, whatever...that's your choice.

Why should I suffer because you have a nasty habit? It's not just something we don't like, it's something that is harmful. As for bars that don't allow smoking in states where smoking in bars is allowed...where am I supposed to go? I can't even go to a restaurant in this God forsaken state that doesn't allow smoking. Oh yeah, that seating on one side of the restaurant really reduces it...yeah, that's sarcasm. As for filtration systems...yeah if they actually worked. They'd have to sit right above your table, right above your head and suck mighty hard to remove the smell and the smoke. No one would be able to have a conversation.

Most bars I know...especially in CA, allow you to walk onto a back patio, or right outside and smoke your happy lungs out, just not inside. Also, second hand smoke does still exist on your clothing hence why children of smokers, even if they smoke outside, are more prone to respiratory infections and ear infections.

Answer 5

Maybe they should allow smoking in some bars or private clubs, but only if they pass some kind of air filtration test and get a license to be a smoking establishment.

Answer 6

I was a smoker for 19 years, quit 3 months ago. Bars and bowling alleys, IMHO, should allow smoking if they choose as they are privately owned.

On the other hand, it's nice going to bars and small restaurants and not smelling like smoke.

Answer 7

I'd LOVE for the restaurants and other places to have separate air filtration/exhaust systems in place, but those systems are incredibly expensive to put in, especially if the building is old. So, they won't put them in and I'm stuck breathing in poisonous chemicals from cigarettes, smelling like an ashtray so I have to shower as soon as I get home, and not really being able to breathe.

As for bars, why should I not be able to go into them because you can't hold off on your smoking or go outside or something? I can't hold off on my breathing.

Further, there are people who have to work in those places who get not only the dose of smoke that you are inhaling, but everybody's second hand smoke from every smoker who smokes there. It's not right that they should have to choose between making a living or living simply because you want to kill yourself, smoking.

Look, if you want to smell like that and kill yourself slowly, that's OK with me. I don't get it but I'm not going to stop you from doing it. But you're right to smoke ends at my right to breathe. Rights should not infringe on basic needs to live--like breathing. Stink yourself up and kill yourself at home or in your car--but don't insist on taking me with you!

Answer 8

Smokers believe they are only impacting themselves. They are not.

They also impact their families, their friends and society as a whole. Do you think buying the pack of cigarettes is the only cost? No way? There is cost to employers in increased absenteeism and lost productivity. There is cost to the medical system when you go in for your lung transplant. And so on.

Answer 9

Because it ISN'T good enough. I've never been in a building with an air system could enough to clean it entirely. And if I can smell it, it's going in me.

You wanna commit suicide. Totally cool. Really, it's your body, do as you please. But eat a bullet because you have NO right to take me with you by exposing me or my kids to that crap. Giving my kids asthma or exacerbating it, then WE have to pay for that, then you at the end stage of your addicted life

Smokers that think they are entitled (like you) pis me off.


EDIT:

Salt, fat and the internet? Those are NOT inherently lethal. Only lethal through abuse.

Cyanide...arsenic...butane... smoke is toxic. Period.

Answer 10

I support the bans in restaurants, but not bars. That's taking it too far. Seems to me that alcohol and tobacco go together for lots of folks.

I just got back from Vegas and there's plenty of smoking in the casinos. My throat was dry from that smoke even with some of the filtration the casinos have in place.

I do believe smokers ought to have a place to smoke.