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Aneirin -> RE: With all the fuss over the smoking bans especially here in the uk should alcohol not be given the (1/30/2008 4:21:33 AM)
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Smoking in public I agree is a problem in that those that choose not to smoke for whatever reason are inflicted also. But I feel our government has failed to deal with the problem, making a law just aggravates people in that those people that are affected just feel yet another small pleasure is no longer allowed. Here in Britain as always, it has gone over the top, you cannot go nowhere now without seeing a little sign saying,'It is against the law to smoke in public places', and I mean they are everywhere, visible pollution.
For smokers constantly seeing this sign, it is like a case of rubbing it in, and I have seen places where the signs are vandalised or removed and even bus shelters where all the glass has been broken so the shelter is no longer an enclosed space.
I say the government has failed to deal with the problem, in that all it has done is just follow suit with every other country, it could have explored the options and to remember why the smoking ban was first thought of, was because of pubs and resturaunts, not the rest of the public spaces.
Despite what statistics there are available, pubs have suffered a loss in custom, my local pub has reported this, none but the hardy will smoke outside on a cold winter's night. My local has an undercover smoking area, which at times is more popular than the inside, the lounge just being a bar where people buy drinks and then move out to the smoking area and because it is cold, hug their pints instead of drinking their usual which does affect business.My local pub landlord was even thinking of closing the smoking area to get back his business, but fears no business.
Let's get this into perspective, smoking is a choice, a personal choice, how someone wishes to abuse their health is up to them and let's not forget the tax on tobacco products, surely the smokers paying more tax are contributing more to the country than a non smoker. So people say smokers who contract illnesses through smoking should be disbarred from hospital treatment, Why, they have paid for it via their national insurance contributions and the added tax from smoking.Smokers tend not to get ill as much as non smokers, and there is a suggestion that smokers would be ok with avian flu if it ever became a problem, so it is not as if smokers are that much of a burden on the NHS, just a political burden.
Sidestream smoke from smokers, really is small potatoes compared to what we might inhale in a city, diesel fumes being a very well known carcinogen, if you can smell diesel fumes, you are breathing it in and possibly lining your lungs with sulpherous carbon and whatever other nasty the fuel company has put in it.
Alcohol problems, people's choice, smoking, people's choice, eating fatty food, again people's choice.Excess in anything equals more tax paid.Honestly the government should concern itself with running the country, not interfering in people's lives, they do not own us and there should not dictate to us.We are entitled to choice as human beings, like any other human being.
Alcohol related crime, same as drug related crime, if that is a law and order problem, then those who police us should deal with it.
And let's not forget that though the government says we really should not smoke, drink more than whatever is the current limit or eat more of something we like, they still continue to allow the sale of those bad,bad things and there reap high tax from them.
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