Statewide Smoking Ban

What have non-smokers been told for so long? I seriously can't believe that people even argue this.

 

The street is better ventilated and less crowded than a restaurant.

 

yes and this does so much more for city beautification.

 

That should be considered littering and ticketed.

 

where do you propose smokers dispose of their cigarette butts?

 

They can eat them for all I care. I can't (and wouldn't) throw my garbage out all over the streets and they shouldn't either. Cigarette butts are garbage. Dispose of it properly.

 

1) force smokers outside where there is no ash tray
2) don't provide a proper disposal area

that makes sense to me!... though most places do have trashcans, and ashtrays outside. my initial question was more directed towards the comment of the street being better ventilated and less crowded.



my position is this; we should leave the decision up to business owners and allow them to decide if/when/where smoking should be allowed in their businesses.

of establishments that i frequent, that do allow for smoking inside, i find many of the employees are smokers. thus i do not buy the position of this law is to protect workers. of the ones that do not smoke, there are many other options for employment.

for the size of our city, there are plenty of establishments that serve the same type of food. if you don't like going to the texmex restaurant because they have smoking, there is another one right around the corner.

smoking is a choice.
place of employment is a choice too.

 

Smoking is choice. With any choice comes responsibility. If someone is going to smoke, it is their responsibility to have a place to properly dispose of their crap. Not anyone elses.

Employment is a necessity for many people, smoking is a luxury (I guess ). People shouldn't have to make a choice between providing for their family and their health.

I can't believe that this is even up for discussion. It is seriously the dumbest argument out there. Smokers act like they are being oppressed and going through some sort of ridiculous persecution like women during Women's Suffrage or minorities during the Civil Rights movement. If it weren't so completely stupid it might be funny.

 

Has there been any study done to see if these bar/restaurant owners are correct in their assumption that it will hurt business?

I see that claim made all the time at the outset of these debates...but have never seen any follow-through.

It honestly makes zero sense to me. I have a hard time believing that smokers will just stop eating out and going to bars, simply because there's a smoking ban indoors. The alternatives are eating at home or driving to Louisiana or Oklahoma to eat out.

 

Every single establishment that I have seen that no longer has indoor smoking, has ash trays/cans and proper disposal places for cigarettes outdoors.

 

Bravo Texas! It's a wonderful law. Going out to bars is no longer a completely horrible experience.

Plus, the weather is warmer down there. It's not like you have to go outside in minus forty (celcius) temperatures like here.

 

Using celsius after "minus forty" is redundant.

 

Exactly. Smokers are quite selfish people if they want to get their little buzz at the discomfort and health risk of others around them. Take it outside - and preferably away from the door so you don't have to walk through a smoker's gauntlet upon exiting the place

 

A smoking ban in California (about ten years ago now?) did not hurt bar business, as far as I can tell. And actually, you still have a few smoking bars -- the bar has to be employee owned, like a cooperative, and all employees have to agree to the smoking.

What we need for public health is a sugar ban. Seriously, look at diabetes and obesity stats, then look at lung cancer stats. It would be like our foreign policy being obsessed with Upper Volta instead of Iran and Russia.

 

The difference is that if I eat a Milky Way within a few feet of you, it won't impact your health.

 

what about the mental well-being of people having to look at the obese?

 

it is incredibly inconvenient for non-smokers to have to share the same unhealthy air with the cigarette smokers in bars and restaurants across Texas.

I am an ex-smoker, hoping this statewide bill will pass...

 

I didn't think it was redundant, just inaccurate: unless Fadeaway is posting from Asahikawa, Japan in 1902; or Siedice, Poland in 1940.

 

i agree with this, and would also like to see the numbers. i highly doubt business (sales wise) would be hurt by the passage, and MB i do agree that smoking is a choice (luxury) while working generally isn't a choice (though where you work most definitely is). my issue with this law is that it takes the choice away from the business owner.

 

I hate the smell of cigarette smoke but I don't mind smoking a cigar with a nice drink sometimes. I ditto saying to let the establishments decide. If people don't like it there are other places to go in Houston.