Writer's Block: Tobacco road

[camwyn]

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No. No, I wouldn't.

I don't like tobacco and I don't approve of selling a product that carries as many health risks as it does, particularly not when other, less dangerous drugs are illegal. I do, however, believe that saying 'You can't do something perfectly legal in public' is one step removed from saying 'You can't do this at home' and 'In the name of public health we have the right to go into your home and invade your privacy, you horrible person, you'.

Because that's what it is, really. Laws against smoking in the workplace protect people who may not be able to go anywhere or get away from the danger that tobacco smoke presents. Laws against smoking on the street, where anybody could move anywhere they wanted, are an effort to demonize people who smoke so that other people don't have to be reminded of their existence and can marginalize them away all the more easily. The public's lungs are probably in more danger from car exhaust anyway. You can walk away from tobacco smoke in my city. Walking away from cars? Not gonna happen.

Comments

[zwol.livejournal.com]

I have a good friend whose asthma is so severe that she might have to go to the emergency room just from walking into an invisible cloud of smoke left on the sidewalk by someone who had been smoking there some time previously. Thus I have no sympathy for smoking anywhere public. I don't see this as a slippery slope scenario either, there's a clear public/private space distinction in US law.

[weaverandom.livejournal.com]

If I could walk away from tobacco smoke in Melbourne, I'd agree with you - but alas, I always seem to be caught in the peak-hour pack directly behind a smoker. Ash on my clothes, smoke in my face ... it's pretty gross. And it's really hard to get away from, in a crowd of people all walking the same direction at the same pace (from the courts to the station) and all in a hurry and prepared to swear at you if you break pace.

... so I'd like to outlaw smoking just in that particular street between 8-9 and 5-6.

I don't even have asthma, I just violently resent having to smell like smoke all day.

[weaverandom.livejournal.com]

Rereading this, I think what I actually want to outlaw is people being arseholes. Can we get that made law? "NOBODY IS PERMITTED TO BE A DICK TO OTHERS ANY MORE, THE END."

[cameoflage.livejournal.com]

I wish I could ban smoking at bus stops. I also hate it when people smoke at the bus LOOP, but at least that gives me more room to stand upwind of them. *fumes*

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

That's only true if you don't have to enter or exit or walk past the buildings the people are standing around in front of smoking. Because despite laws which say they must be so far from the doors, none of them pay attention or care.

As several of my friends are severely allergic to tobacco smoke, this is a problem. And really, I think that other people's right to do nasty stuff to their bodies kind of ends where their choice start impinging on my ability to breathe without getting a headache while conducting normal daily business.

I dislike car exhaust as well, but there's a lot less you can do about that when you're talking about streets.

So, I suppose, if they actually ticketed people for smoking within 30 feet of the entrances and exits of building, then I'd be okay with it, but they don't.

[sookail.livejournal.com]

Never thought about it that way, but that`s a really thoughtful and considerate POV.

[kyrielle]

I see your point, and yet. The smoke clouds that people walk through do cause harm. And in some areas, they are ubiquitous enough those people can't move. Also, what about workers in food carts, etc., whose ability to move out of the way is in fact non-existent? People waiting at bus stops? "Just move" doesn't work if it means you risk missing your ride home.

And "You can't do something perfectly legal in public" - I am completely allowed to screw my husband in my house. I am not allowed to do it on Main Street. And that is not even a question of health, which actually applies here - just of general decency.