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Originally Posted by kutulu
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I hear a lot of complaining about second hand smoke, but I don't hear one word about car exhaust. So it's okay to walk down the street and smell emissions from a car, but it's not okay for someone to sit next to you and smoke
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Exactly. They also operate their gas or charcoal grills and sit around the campfire. You don't hear about people getting all looney about that because they LIKE the way those things smell or they are odorless (and conveniently forget that those things are just as, if not more dangerous). |
If you read my cost/benefit justification, you'll notice it fails for cars.
Even at that, car emissions standards have been getting tighter and tighter as years go on. Yes, cars pollute and kill, but we decided the benefits of cars outwiegh the cost in lives and stink.
Also note that cars are used outdoors, where they disperse into billions of tonnes of atmosphere (on the order of 10^14 tonnes of atmosphere).
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Originally Posted by kutulu
What you fail to include, however, is that the passive smoker inhales considerably LESS than the person smoking. Ever heard of dispersion? The farther away you are from the source, the lower the concentration will be. After that, look at length of exposure to the smoke. Walking into a building you might pass a smoker standing 5-10 feet from the door. You are within a 20 foot radius of them for about 10 seconds. Compare that to someone who smokes the whole fucking cig. There is an astronomical difference.
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And, say, spending 6 hours a night working in a smoke-filled nightclub, how would that compare?
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Originally Posted by flstf
The point I was trying to make is that if you agree with the studies that show secondhand smoke is harmful and do not wish to expose yourself to it then all you have to do is not go into the establishment. Why should it bother you if the business owner wishes to permit his customers to enjoy tobacco products? No one is forcing you to go in.
I don't think "open brawl zones" applies here, although I have been in some taverns where one might think it does.
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It's allowing your patrons to harm each other and your employees. Be it with cancer of broken bones and concussions.
The likelyhood of there being harm is large. The cost of removing the harm is low. Government regulation along these lines is far from unprecidented.