Should Smoking be banned completely?!

I never throw my butts on the ground as I am totally against littering.
I saw a cop throw a ciggarette wrapper on the ground once and I asked him to pick it up ;-)

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You know what really amuses the hell out of me? People who worry about second-hand smoke in an open-air place. I once heard a man tell his toddler son, "Don't go near that man. He's smoking a cigarette." The venue was a street-corner bus stop. Here there are buses and trucks going by, spewing Diesel fumes; fleets of cars emitting more carbon monoxide; garbage rotting in the gutter -- and this clown is worried about one person smoking a cigarette polluting the air?? Why not tell his son to just stop breathing instead? That, at least, would make some sense.

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MA, your comparison makes no sense.

people smoke by choice.

the air pollution produced by cars and trucks is a by-product of the mechanism.

until they figure out a pollution-free engine design, we all have to live with it...

i do agree with you that the only thing more disgusting than a face-full of someone else's smoke is the rancid smell of rotting garbage Wink

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Region Philbis wrote:

the air pollution produced by cars and trucks is a by-product of the mechanism.

until they figure out a pollution-free engine design, we all have to live with it...

(Easier to say, I imagine, if you live with it inside a car.)

Try being a car-free public transport user!
When I see one person sitting in their car in a traffic jam, guzzling petrol and chucking out toxic fumes, smoking a cigarette seems minimal in terms of air pollution.

I mean, if a man gets in his car and drives half a mile and back, in order to have a cigarette somewhere away from other people....
what would be the point? Just starting his car would be enough to cancel out the amount of air pollution in a cigarette - probably as much as a whole pack of cigarettes! I don't know.

How many cigarettes would you have to smoke in order to create as much pollution as driving one mile in the average car? I think that's an interesting question.

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Region Philbis wrote:

MA, your comparison makes no sense.

people smoke by choice.

the air pollution produced by cars and trucks is a by-product of the mechanism.

until they figure out a pollution-free engine design, we all have to live with it...

i do agree with you that the only thing more disgusting than a face-full of someone else's smoke is the rancid smell of rotting garbage

Yes, you're right, Region, but that wasn't my point. My point was that this man is singling out a solitary smoker for his son to beware of when, in fact, the entire environment they're in is far more dangerous to one's lungs than whatever second-hand smoke might be accidentally inhaled.

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Merry Andrew wrote:

Region Philbis wrote:
MA, your comparison makes no sense.

people smoke by choice.

the air pollution produced by cars and trucks is a by-product of the mechanism.

until they figure out a pollution-free engine design, we all have to live with it...

i do agree with you that the only thing more disgusting than a face-full of someone else's smoke is the rancid smell of rotting garbage

Yes, you're right, Region, but that wasn't my point. My point was that this man is singling out a solitary smoker for his son to beware of when, in fact, the entire environment they're in is far more dangerous to one's lungs than whatever second-hand smoke might be accidentally inhaled.

haha, yeah. I think it would've been better if he bought his son a gas-mask. Razz

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Interesting point about the cars.

A lot of people seem to think it is their right to drive a SUV: no thought behind it whatsoever. Even in the city?! To drive to the store down the street?! This is weird to me. Just because you can do something - does that mean it's a good idea?!

ok..I'll shut up now.
Cool

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Quote:

Yes, you're right, Region, but that wasn't my point. My point was that this man is singling out a solitary smoker for his son to beware of when, in fact, the entire environment they're in is far more dangerous to one's lungs than whatever second-hand smoke might be accidentally inhaled.

not sure that the toddler is ready for the big picture, just yet.
but he does know this much: Solitary Smoker is Bad -- Stay Away.

i hope the kid always remembers the lesson his father taught him...

< hopping off high-horse >

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...then maybe Dad shouldnt go out in public...simple. Rolling Eyes

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I'm enjoying an old-fashioned non-filter Camel as I type this. Ahhhh, bliss.

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Region Philbis wrote:

MA, your comparison makes no sense.

people smoke by choice.

the air pollution produced by cars and trucks is a by-product of the mechanism.

until they figure out a pollution-free engine design, we all have to live with it...

Use your legs and feet...WALK, don't drive. Get a bicycle, carpool if you must go distances. Push for public transportation of some sort such as bus or mini-bus/vans. I see people driving...BY CHOICE...to the next corner just to mail a letter or 3 or 4 corners away just to purchase a box of salt. So there is definitely choice here. I choose not to drive a motorized vehicle, and for years I chose to smoke non-filtered Pall Malls and then Winston). Both are choices.

Life is full of choice RP, which choice are you choosing?

And M.A. could you blow some of that smoke my way? I adore second hand smoke, I smoke vicariously.

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Sturgis,

i don't drive everywhere, if that's what u mean...

what i mean is people don't HAVE to smoke at all;
people do, however, have to drive sometimes.

hell, if i take a bus to work everyday, the bus is still belching carcinogens into the atmosphere...

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Since it has already been mentioned may I point out one thing that may have escaped notice.

What do you think (know) is the average fuel consumption per passenger mile of the various forms of mass transit.

On the Washington D.C. "Metro" I have ridden a train that must weigh in the neighborhood of a hundred tons with perhaps twenty people aboard.

I have seen ten ton busses with nobody but a driver. I have seen aircraft take off less than a quarter filled.

Unless you KNOW the figures you are believing what may be a pure propaganda distributed by people with an agenda that may not be in the best interests of humanity as a whole.

I suspect that a surburban mother taking 4 children to wherever they think they need to go in a big safe SUV at 12 mpg is not such an enemy of society as she is pointed out to be.

(That works out to be either .33 gal per passenger mile or if the mother also does an errand .25 gal per passenger mile)

IF mass transit is full then there is no contest. If the bus or train is empty that sure raises heck with th economies and the pollution factor.

Since tobbacco is more or less a natural product (burning leaves) I think that we are more or less equipped to deal with an occasional puff blowing our way.

The same cannot be said of auto,train and bus emissions.

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Please explain(in gret detail) what transportation has to do with the thread of should smoking be banned?
Nice sweet and simple. Smoking increases your chances of grtting lung related illnesses and cancer. Second hand smoke increases the risks of non-smokers receiving the same medical problems. For issues on internal combustion engines, ozone, fuel costs etc, create a thread for that.

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ralpheb wrote:

Please explain(in gret detail) what transportation has to do with the thread of should smoking be banned?
Nice sweet and simple. Smoking increases your chances of grtting lung related illnesses and cancer. Second hand smoke increases the risks of non-smokers receiving the same medical problems. For issues on internal combustion engines, ozone, fuel costs etc, create a thread for that.

Okay, lets be honest.
Smoking is a small luxury of the poor.
I am a smoker. I do not drive a car, own a factory, fly in jets, chop down forests, dump waste in rivers, own a nuclear plant, burn coal, throw out plastic or glass, burn oil fields.
So why are smokers attacked?

Public health focus http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2557617.stm

Meanwhile, Professor Virginia Berridge, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has alleged that the UK government concealed the threat to public health posed by air pollution when its effects began to become apparent following the great London smog 50 years ago.

Professor Berridge, speaking at a conference to commemorate the smog, which is estimated to have killed 12,000 people, said ministers chose instead to focus on smoking.

Thus they were able to shift responsibility to the individual, rather than face up to the political challenges of combatting pollution.

Professor Berridge said that in 1957 the Medical Research Council was planning to issue a statement in which it estimated that air pollution could be responsible for up to 30% of cases of lung cancer.

However, she claimed that a cabinet committee, fearful of political embarrassment, ased the MRC to reconsider.

As a result, a modified version was published, stating that although it was likely that air pollution did play a role in lung cancer, it was a relatively minor one in comparison with cigarette smoking.

Air pollution is responsible for 310,000 premature deaths in Europe each year, research suggests. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4283295.stm

I suppose that us smokers cannot understand why people refuse to accept the truth about air pollution.

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CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA
Scientific Conference, held 6-10 September 2004
incidence, causal mechanisms and prevention

Press Release - 9th August 2005

Professor Knox's latest findings of significantly increased incidence of childhood cancer close to sources of vehicle exhaust pollution is in line with his own previous findings as well as an existing body of laboratory research indicating that vehicle exhaust pollution contains a range of known cancer causing agents. It is clear from these results that vehicle exhaust pollution could be a major causal factor in the incidence of childhood leukaemia in the UK.
[Oil combustion and childhood cancers J Epidemiol Community Health 2005; 59: 755-60]

Childhood cancers are strongly linked to pollution from engine exhausts, concludes research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

http://www.leukaemiaconference.org/main.asp

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So, if smoking (outside or in your own home) is no real threat to anyone else, what is the real reason for people being so against smoking?
That's what I'm trying to get my head around.
What's the problem, really?

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Me too Endymion,

I brought out transportation as a polluter simply because the vision of a guy protecting his offspring from a smoker whilst standing at a bus stop was almost too silly to believe. If I hadn't had similar experiences personally I'd a' thought the writer was fibbing Exclamation

A great deal of travel is for pleasure, So is a great deal of smoking. I often wonder why the smoking has been singled out as objectionable while travelling on vacation or a drive in the country hasn't been.

If we look for logic in human behavior we will become horribly cynical or greatly disappointed Sad

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ENDYMION wrote:

So, if smoking (outside or in your own home) is no real threat to anyone else, what is the real reason for people being so against smoking?
That's what I'm trying to get my head around.
What's the problem, really?

well its not a big deal...its just some people like making mountains out of mole hills! Very Happy

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Smoking in your own home does hurt others, if other people are in the home. Second hand smoke is harmful. But as far as outside goes, it's not a big deal at all. I think it doesn't matter whether cigarettes or not because that would just cause a HUGE black market, and I have a feeling it would be worse than other illegal drugs right now.

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Should Smoking be banned completely?!

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