I also agree with some others that I don't think the government should be so involved with what a private company chooses to do. Esp. since all of this information about the dangers of smoking has come out, I think society is already changing to wanting a healthier environment. So in order to have a thriving business, an owner will try to meet the demands of their customers by having a smoke-free environment without government intrusion. I was very disappointed when our state of MN passed a law banning smoking in all buildings of employment. In the Twin Cities, prior to the law, there was a bar that had spent an enormous amount of money creating a special smoking area that was completely enclosed and had a state-of-the-art filtration system set up to clean the air in that room. The next year, the law was passed and the bar found themselves wasting all of that money trying to cater to all of their guests. I also know of other bars that even before the law went into effect chose to become smoke-free, putting the lie to the idea that without these laws, businesses (esp. bars) would always allow smoking or else go bankrupt.
The new law was also ridiculous in that it restricted smoking even in tobacconist shops -- except for the fuzzily defined "sampling" that was permitted. There was a controversy over a tobacconist shop wanting to set up an enclosed lounge area that allowed smokers a pleasant area to "sample" the products. The problem was that by setting up this smoking lounge would encourage the smokers to stay for longer periods of time, thereby no longer just "sampling" a product, but actually spending time enjoying the product. Because of this the smoke shop was not allowed to create such a lounge in their establishment (that may have been a city ordinance issue to more clearly define how they interpreted the new law that allowed "sampling" of products in these tobacco shops, however it still seems ridiculous to worry about smoking in an establishment specific for tobacco sales).
I also know that in Rochester, MN the county had further expanded the law to prohibit smoking within 5 feet from a doorway of such a place of business. Since in the downtown areas most of the doorways are within 5 feet of each other, there was a minor protest about the new law where some smokers stood 5 feet outside of a bar in the only place that would also be 5 feet from any other door -- which was directly in the middle of a lane of traffic on the road.
I'm just scarred that when the government gets a whiff (no pun intended) of the damage from so-called "third-hand smoke", there'll be new laws preventing smokers from even touching anything without first washing their hands (see
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/thirdhand-smoke-dna-damage-cells_n_3474797.html for an article about this new "third-hand smoke" idea).
Community Forum
Topic: smoking (Read 5418 times)
December 07, 2010, 10:19:09 pm
