Wednesday, December 26, 2007

a reasonable approach to public smoking

it surprised me to find out that Israel actually has anti-smoking laws, just like California and a handful of other nanny states. they recently announced that they intend to actually enforce it and also that they would modify it so that smoking would be allowed in 20% of establishments.

i don't smoke and i don't particularly like to be near smokers in an enclosed space, but i think the complete ban of smoking in all public spaces is ridiculous. the entirety of the 643 acre campus of the University of Washington (my alma-mater) is smoke-free. indoor and outdoor. all of it. all of the time. but feel free to get as drunk as you want and puke all over the place. technically, you'll need to get a permit to serve alcohol for that.

i don't think smoking or second-hand smoking is half as big of a deal as it is made out to be. how does it compare to alcohol, depression, methamphetamines, obesity, gun ownership, homelessness, and racism in terms of lives destroyed? and yet you can feel free to walk around Seattle drunk, low, high, fat, armed, vagrant, or racist and people will let you be, would never think of saying a word. but try to light up a mild stimulant with a not entirely unpleasant odor and people assume that you've forgotten that you're in a public space and take the responsibility of reminding you as a personal mission. honestly, the only impact that sitting in an unventilated restaurant for two hours across the table from a chain smoker would have on most of us would be smelly hair and slightly red eyes. get a grip. second-hand drunkenness can leave you covered in puke, disgusted with humanity, in a fight, or dead.

so, yes, fine, if you want to be somewhere without smoke, go to one of the smoke-free restaurants. but, if smokers want to go out and have a bucket of coffee and a pack of cigarettes, i don't see what the big deal is. we don't mind when people go out do all sorts of other self-destructive things on their own time. what is it about smoking that invites so much disdain and strict public regulation?

i hope Israel's 20% rule works out. maybe some of the nanny states will be convinced to follow.

2 comments:

deprogram said...

are you fucking stupid?

"i don't think smoking or second-hand smoking is half as big of a deal as it is made out to be. how does it compare to alcohol, depression, methamphetamines, obesity, gun ownership, homelessness, and racism in terms of lives destroyed?"

hmmm. let's look at some actual facts as opposed to random hyperbole:

alcohol - "In 2001, there were approximately 75,000 deaths attributable to excessive alcohol use." (cdc.gov)
tobacco - "Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.1 Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 438,000 deaths, or about 1 of every 5 deaths, each year. This estimate includes approximately 38,000 deaths from secondhand smoke exposure." (also cdc.gov)

i'm not even going to bother digging up statistics on the other ones.

your problem is that you are confusing things that have a direct affect only on the person doing them, and something that has a measurable, definite effect on other people that have made no choice to participate in that activity.

if someone is obese, or on speed, or drunk, or homeless, does that make me at risk for heart failure, or somehow force me to live in a cardboard box? uh, no.

i'm all for people being allowed to make the personal choice to use tobacco. the problem is when they do so in a way that may give ME cancer.

also, i do love a good cuban. but that's MY choice.

shaun said...

it sounds like we don't really disagree about the benefit Israeli policy of allowing smoking in 20% of restaurants and bars.

i haven't looked into the stats on second-hand smoke, but i would imagine that most of those 38,000 deaths are among people who live with heavy smokers, not people who can very occasionally detect the scent of a smoker on a public sidewalk or people who go to a smoky bar once a week.

it sounds like we agree that people should be allowed to do almost any stupid thing they want so long as it doesn't hurt us.

i just can't imagine any real injury to myself resulting from the two hours of dilute second-hand smoke per week that would result from choosing to go to a smoky bar or cafe.

but i can imagine getting injured by a drunk, drug addict, or desperate vagrant without making any choice in the matter.