Which of the following is closest to your preferred approach to smoking bans?

[Nye Bevan]

Assume for this poll that we are talking only about conventional (not e-) cigarettes.

28 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Allow smoking everywhere
	5 (18%)
	Ban smoking on airplanes and public transport
	11 (39%)
	Ban smoking on airplanes, public transport, and in restaurants and bars
	3 (11%)
	Ban smoking on airplanes, public transport, in restaurants and bars, and in public parks and beaches
	4 (14%)
	Ban smoking on airplanes, public transport, in restaurants and bars, public parks, beaches, and on public streets
	5 (18%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[darkangel218]

1. Where is the outlaw smoking option?

Jk!!

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. Maybe it was banned.

[seabeckind]

9. Yes! n/t

[sabrina 1]

36. Where is the ban perfume option?

[darkangel218]

37. Yah, that one they seriously need to consider.

Toxic shit.

[rrneck]

2. Smoking and bars kinda go together,

otherwise indoor public spaces should be smoke free, but outdoors is fine.

[brewens]

7. The guy that had the first smoke free bar where I live got screwed by the WA state smoking ban.

He had kind of an exclusive thing going. It was a popular place but he also had a large deck on the water where smoking was allowed. I loved it out there in nice weather. The smoking ban made his deck off limits too. Evidently it wasn't large enough to make it work and comply with the distance from and entrance regulation.

There was nothing wrong with leaving that up to the individual establishment owners.

[customerserviceguy]

8. I guess I got spoiled

Some years ago, the various states I've lived in and near (WA,OR,NY,NJ) banned smoking in bars. Last week, I was in a brewpub in South Carolina getting a couple of growlers filled, and sat down to have a brew while it was being done. A couple around the corner were smoking, and something that didn't used to bother me ten years ago suddenly bothered me! I might have had a second beer, but after the first one was finished more hastily than usual, I grabbed the growlers and headed out the door.

I wonder which state will be the last one to ban smoking in bars and restaurants.

[rrneck]

12. Yep. The smoke never bothered me

until I worked all day directly above one of those guys that always has a cigarette in his mouth. For years after that just the smell of cigarette smoke would make me sick.

A total ban might not be a bad thing, but there are private property issues involved. The market might split and fight it out.

[sabrina 1]

39. The smell of meat bothered me after I had not had it for a while. Ban MEAT!

My girlfriend is alergic to perfume. If she is in an elevator eg, with someone wearing perfume, she panics, can't breathe etc. She understands that this is HER problem and I've never heard ask that Perfume be banned.

Ban Perfume! Someone somewhere is alergic to it!

Smoking doesn't bother me, smoke away. But the fumes from automobiles after living in rural areas where there is so little traffic, makes me feel like I'm choking.

BAN AUTOMOBILES.

It's a tough life. And a short one. Everyone dies in the end.

I can avoid automobile fumes. My friend can avoid perfume. But that anti smoking crowd, they just can't seem to figure out that we all have our issues, we just don't have huge amounts of money to pay to make OUR particular issues a top priority.

[tritsofme]

19. I found out this past summer that smoking is banned in outdoor beer gardens at bars in Chicago

I'm not a smoker, but I think this is getting out of hand.

[rrneck]

21. Yeah. It's hard to control the air outdoors.

I used to drive a truck and back into a lot of loading docks. For years I was pretty sensitive to cigarette smoke. Invariably there would be people out there smoking, and even there the smoke would be bad enough to make me sick. One guy complained about the truck exhaust and I thought, "Hey, your fucking cigarette is making me sick asshole. At least the truck is down here doing what it's supposed to do".

But a loading dock isn't the great outdoors. I can be around people smoking outdoors and not get sick at all and I used pretty sensitive to it.

[sabrina 1]

40. It is, isn't it? I wonder what's behind it? But the same people who are so rabid about smoking

to be totally oblivious to all the actual poisons they are breathing in every minute of every day.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

3. Minimal regulation.

Ban on airplanes and public transport. Restaurants, bars, and the rest are places people go voluntarily, not in the course of conducting their work lives.

[Nye Bevan]

4. "Not in the course of conducting their work lives". Except for waitstaff, etc.

And at this point the pro-restaurant-smoking DUers usually suddenly start assuming that the economy is absolutely wonderful, and post that these folks can easily just get a job elsewhere where they will not be exposed to smoke.

[tazkcmo]

11. True

The "hospitality" industry is a growth industry but not a desirable field for most folks so if you're good at what you do there's always work in a decent sized population center. Not so much in Small Town for any kind. What I've always wondered is why there were no non-smoking bars before the bans if the demand for one was so high? If there were both kinds then a quality, non-smoking food service worker could go work at the non-smoking bar or, if they didn't give a crap about the smoke, could work at either.

I'm a smoker so obviously I liked the smoking bars but I'm also in the industry and am supportive of healthy working conditions.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

22. Eh, I just assume most people aren't that affected by 2nd hand smoke.

I'm not a smoker. Also not bothered. One of those things that suddenly popped up and I went "huh"? My dad was a heavy smoker, as were all his friends and most of our relatives when I was a kid. My mother in law smoked up until about a decade before her death, which would be up to about let's say 15 years ago.
No ill effects to me at all. I have not a whole lot of patience for the whole hysteria over 2nd hand smoke. Sorry.

[frylock]

10. uhhhhhhhhhhh.....

[Eleanors38]

6. Well, I chose up to restaurants & bars, but think "clubs"

should be exempted because, imo, they are not public accommodations, but instead private associations. On the other, I think gov buildings could fall under a ban. Beyond that, policy passes the tilting point for prohibition.

[tazkcmo]

14. Exactly

That's what I always suggested to the bar owners that were complaining about the ban. Turn into a private club and charge a buck for a year's membership.

[Egalitarian Thug]

25. Not allowed. It was done, so they banned it there,too. n/t

[Comrade Grumpy]

13. Any ban should include someplace for smokers to smoke socially.

I know one bar owner in Washington state fought and won a bitter battle with the liquor control board over having a members-only, private club smoking section upstairs. He's now fighting a similar battle over weed. An ornery fellow.

Maybe there could be a provision for a special smoking-allowed license for bars, coffeehouses, restaurants that apply for it.

Or a license for a smoking establishment.

Just because you don't like cigarette smoke doesn't mean smokers shouldn't be able to get together and smoke convivially.

[onehandle]

15. The fifth choice is inevitable. nt

[Warpy]

16. None of the above

Ban smoking in public indoors and in any confined space. That covers any building frequented by the general public as well as transit options. Landlords can ban smoking inside their buildings, also.

Parks can still be fair game, just hire enough people to sweep up the filth left by smokers a couple of times a day.

[Zorra]

17. The truth is, smoking really is bad for children. nt

[Luminous Animal]

29. So is car exhaust.

[LeftyMom]

33. Which is why you don't drive indoors.

[Luminous Animal]

42. Second hand exhaust. It is everywhere.

[Zorra]

38. OK. Not a fan of car exhaust, but, can we have a calm, rational discussion

of the reasons why this particular comparison may not be all that reasonable?

[Luminous Animal]

43. You go first.

[Zorra]

50. OK. In general, smoking is simply a costly personal preference/addiction, detrimental to all life.

Car exhaust is a disgusting and unnecessary by-product of an archaic means of transportation that plutarchs have inflicted upon us for their continual profit, against our better judgment and will. Most of us have little choice but to drive to work and work in order to survive, and feed ourselves and family.

In contrast, everyone can survive without smoking, and make the personal choice not to smoke and still survive, unless they do not have the willpower to conquer the nicotine chemical addiction that controls them.

Smoking is most often an expensive and completely optional personal luxury, an addiction, while spewing car exhaust is most often a relatively necessary primary initial and ongoing part of a process by which we gain sustenance in order to facilitate our continued personal, familial, and cultural survival.

[Luminous Animal]

51. So, we have to put up with car exhaust, detrimental to all life because the 1%

has made doing so essential for our economic survival. That is, we grant the 1% to draw the "disgusting" line and the profits from which they gain insane luxuries.

But, oh no, no such consideration granted to those who exercise an optional personal luxury. Heaven forbid the peons enjoy a luxury.

[Tx4obama]

18. Oh the good ol' days...

Airplanes had ashtrays on the arm rests.

Trains had smoking cars.

The Teacher's lounges in schools were a welcoming place where a teacher could go to smoke during a break.

A person could smoke in a hospital room IF there wasn't an oxygen tank in the room.

Office desks had big ol' glass ashtrays on them.

Waiting rooms had those metal ashtrays with the push-down button on the top.

Folks could smoke on the library steps while reading a book.

Ashtray canisters filled with sand were lined up next to elevator doors.

[Nye Bevan]

20. Oh, I remember going to the school staff lounge as a kid to deliver a message to a teacher,

and almost passing out from being overcome by fumes when the door was opened and the clouds of smoke emerged from it.

Different times, indeed.

[Midwestern Democrat]

23. I voted for "Ban smoking on airplanes and public transport".

I don't personally have a problem with bans in bars/restaurants (I stopped smoking in restaurants as a matter of courtesy some years before it was banned), but I have enough respect for private property rights that I feel that bar and restaurant owners should be able to allow or disallow smoking as they see fit and let the free market decide which option is more popular.

I'm willing to obey smoking bans in parks, beaches, and other congested outdoor areas, but I would never comply with a total outdoor ban covering all streets and sidewalks - no cigarette smoker can go without a cigarette for ten straight hours five days a week (he might as well go cold turkey and quit altogether).

[Egalitarian Thug]

26. That's the problem, they can't. When there is a choice, non-smoking loses.

Mostly because smokers like to smoke, especially in bars, and contrary to the sensibilities of DUers, most people don't really care all that much so any party with smokers ends up in a place that allows it. That's pretty much why Rob Reiner started all this.

[Union Scribe]

27. "most people don't really care all that much"

cite?

[Luminous Animal]

30. When I go to a party, I bring to extra packs to

lay on the table for the "non-smokers".

[nilesobek]

52. Totally agreed. Reality check time.

I work as a cashier and sold thousands of dollars worth the cigs and booze in the last seven days or so. People are going to do it no matter what. Who is going to be the "Elliot Ness," of cigarette prohibition?

[flvegan]

24. Airplanes, public transport and restaurants of the spaces given. Closed air spaces.

I think banning smoking in bars is sort of hypocritical, and should be left to the owner of the bar to decide. I can't see banning it in open air spaces, like the beach and parks.

[pnwmom]

48. What about the people who work in the bar? Why should they have to be

exposed to 2nd hand air pollution?

There's no hypocrisy -- drinking alcohol doesn't put alcohol into anyone else's mouth.

[LittleBlue]

28. Any place where employees are pressured to be

I wouldn't force anyone to work in a place where they shouldn't reasonably expect smoke. So in restaurants, bars, or most public places where smoke is not an integral part of the business.

In smoke shops, cigar sellers, etc. they should be able to smoke indoors as long as everyone who is exposed to the smoke consents to do so.

In my state it's illegal in all public establishments.

[LeftyMom]

31. I want to know where it's legal for me to punch people in the diaphragm for smoking.

If somebody's going to trigger my asthma I want to make sure they can't breathe either. You know, because fairness.

[Vashta Nerada]

32. Ban smoking everywhere the public is allowed.

Bars, restaurants, beaches, parks, wherever.

I don't want to breathe that shit in when I go out.

[Logical]

34. Allow smoking everywhere? Who is still that clueless? nt

[Nevernose]

35. An overheard conversation among my high school students

I won't retune it verbatim, but out of the whole class, the only people who knew anyone who smoked inside were one student's grandparents. Even the kids who were allowed to smoke and smoked with their parents smoked outside. Most -- even in the families of smokers -- considered the act of smoking indoors, even in their own homes, at best bizarre and at worst as physically revolting.

Having led the nation I'm teen smoking for so long (and having been one if those teen smokers) it was a nice change of paradigm.

[Revanchist]

41. Out of curiosity Nye, what's your opinion on Electronic Cigarettes

and other vaping devices?

[Nye Bevan]

44. I think they are a wonderful invention.

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022551212

[Revanchist]

45. I wonder what the poll results would look like if you had included them

as an option.

[nomorenomore08]

46. I choice option 3, but being a non-cigarette-smoker I'm somewhat flexible.

Although I don't think banning smoking on public streets - other than close to certain buildings perhaps - is realistic or very reasonable.

And for the record, I think people should be allowed to smoke pot most places they're allowed to smoke cigs.

[pnwmom]

47. You left out an important location.

Smoking should also be banned in workplaces, as it is in my state.

[starroute]

49. The trouble with cigarette smoke is that it travels and lingers

I'm highly allergic to cigarette smoke. It isn't just the smell or concerns about secondhand smoke -- my chest tightens up and my nose and palate sting and I start coughing but there's no congestion so it doesn't do any good. Any place that people smoke is a place I have to stay away from, including parades and festivals and other public events. And that totally sucks.

There's also a problem if I have a window open and somebody comes sauntering down the street with a cigarette. For a while, there was a woman whose family probably didn't want her to smoke in their own house, because every day she would take a walk down the block with her cigarette, pause right under my windows, and turn to walk back the other way. Five minutes later, she'd be out of sight and I'd still be coughing.

This is not an issue where there's any real room for compromise. A smoker can always do without nicotine for a few hours. Non-smokers can't do without breathing.