A ban on smoking in the home???

[Cyrano]

Sorry if this story has already been covered on DU, but this is the first I've heard of it.

I picked up a brief story on my car radio that some town in California wants to ban smoking in the home. Getting home, I checked out Google and found that this has been an issue in England for some time now.

Not being a smoker, such a law might be enough to make me become one from pure spite and outrage. Are we headed to the point where an ATF SWAT team breaks down your door screaming "Everyone down! Down! Where's the tobacco?" Are we going to make possession of a cigarette a felony?

This isn't a Dem or Republican issue. It's a right to privacy issue. No tobacco in your home today? No masturbation in your home tomorrow? Breathing too much air in your home the day after tomorrow?

This may not be in a league with Iraq, Iran, stealing elections, or the many other issues we bitch about every day. But if someone can tell you today that you can't smoke in your home, the rest of our so-called freedoms are teetering on the edge.

[TahitiNut]

1. The tobacco Nazis know no bounds, it seems.

Appalling.

[ceile]

2. I've heard it mentioned before.

Something about the health of children...maybe it was a story about foster kids. I'll see what I can find. But agreed-it would go way too far.

Here:
http://www.click2houston.com/family/6439254/detail.html

[rucky]

3. It's not a slippery slope issue, either.

It's just plain wrong.

But let's have fun with the slippery slope arguement and ban bagels, too. Cutting bagels is the number-one cause of household accidents. It's a public health issue.

[againes654]

5. No sex in the house either

the children might walk in.

[guitar man]

21. that's the excuse

my wife keeps using :(

[Fuzz]

34. My wife has too many to even list

;)

[guitar man]

37. ha, no kidding!!

If they ban smoking in the house, than her excuse for no sex in the house will be because we can't smoke afterward :P

[dkofos]

4. Smoking has been banned in my house for years, and I'm a smoker.

[Dorian Gray]

7. That's personal choice....

Smoking is also banned in my household, but not because the government told me that it had to be so!

[rucky]

9. and I don't use a microwave...

but I'm not going to try to write legislation over it.

btw, I'm an outdoor smoker, too. Garage in the winter.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. Did you make that decision yourself or

did a government agency that make the decision for you?

[dkofos]

15. I had help, but not from the govt.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. petticoat government...

:-)

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. Me too...I smoke, but never in the house

I rarely smoke indoors, period. And I live in Chicago!

:-)

[Marrah_G]

6. One day they will go to far

My home is MY home. I do not need a nanny.

[L. Coyote]

8. Exposing children to tobacco smoke should be considered totally inappropriate.

Given present knowledge, noone should ever expose a child to tobacco smoke, not even a parent should have that right.

[Marrah_G]

13. Not all smokers have kids

There are lots of things children should not be exposed to. Perhaps we should ban drinking and pornography also?

[L. Coyote]

20. I'm in favor of banning making your children drink with you too!

Kill yourself if you wish. Smokers put smoke into the air we all breath. You live in a city, you are breathing what others smoke.

But, drinkers don't put booze in the air for all to breathe. Smokers put poison in the air, PERIOD!

[coalition_unwilling]

44. If we're so concerned about children, maybe we could ban SUVs, as

their particle emissions contribute mightily to childhood breathing disorders like asthma.

But, whatever, the cant and hypocrisy of the health nazis knows no bounds.

[Sinistrous]

48. And while we're at it, let's ban attached garages.

---A lot of that exhaust filters into the house, after all.

[Clark2008]

23. But the government should NOT tell you what to do in your

own home - children or not.

Are they going to tell us next we can't take our kids to McDonalds (we shouldn't, but neither should they tell us that)?

[Romulox]

28. Ummm, War on Drugs ring a bell? nt

[Breeze54]

36. So should stuffing them with fat and sugar!!

Obesity Driving Rising U.S. Health Costs

http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/071002/obesity-driving-rising-us-health-costs.htm

TUESDAY, Oct. 2 (HealthDay News) --

Obesity is a big factor driving soaring rates of chronic disease in the United States,
with many more Americans chronically ill than their European counterparts, a new study finds.

It's an expensive problem, too: According to researchers, chronic illnesses such as diabetes
and heart disease account for some $100 to $150 billion in health-care spending in the United
States each year.

"The United States spends twice as much as European countries on health care," noted lead
researcher Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the department of health policy and management at
Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta. "Seventy-five percent of what
we spend in this country is associated with patients that have one or more chronic conditions
and most of the growth is due to obesity."

More......

[Beelzebud]

53. Should children be exposed to the outdoors?

Ever hear of industrial pollution?

[backscatter712]

11. I draw the line there.

I can understand banning smoking in restaurants, workplaces, schools, etc. because of the secondhand smoke, but I draw the line at banning smoking in one's own home. Explain to me why destroying someone's liberty in that way is a good idea.

Granted, I don't smoke, and I don't allow smoking in my place, but the owner should be able to decide whether he or she allows smoking or not.

[texastoast]

12. I heard it was proposed for apartment homes

Not single-family dwellings. Yes? No? The second-hand smoke issue is real in such quarters.

[Marrah_G]

14. Lots of landlords don't allow smoking.

[Breeze54]

17. It's the Nanny DLCers running amuck!!

And that "Health Bill", SCHIP, they're putting on the backs of smokers only is BS!!!

I want health care for the kids too but I vehemently disagree with the funding plan!

[musette_sf]

18. it was proposed in Belmont

for apartments, condos, any attached housing.

i am all for a ban if you live in attached housing.

if you have ever lived in an apartment with a heavy smoker in a nearby unit, you may be able to understand why i believe that the smoker's rights end where my nose and lungs begin. the usual apartment lease entitles one to "quiet enjoyment of the premises". when the meth head downstairs is on Pack Four for the night, there is no enjoyment, sleep, etc, going on in my place.

[sinkingfeeling]

32. One reason people buy houses (and most condos are bought) is so that what your

annoying neighbors do can't bother you. Until the government pays my mortgage, my property taxes, and my home owners insurance, they can keep their nose out of my house!

Edited to correct crazy wording.

[SoCalDem]

22. It's for RENTERS...

so tough luck to the poor folks who still smoke..

I can see a landlord charging an extra deposit for cleaning/painting when they move out, but this is going to make it even harder for people to find housing if they happen to partake in the still-legal and heavily government-subsidized activity :(

Our government is very schizophrenic about this whole activity too.. They want us smokers to hang around so they can tax our particular "vice" to pay for everything under the sun, they legislate everything about us, and still refuse to ban the damned stuff, because they have to hand out all that subsidy money to their tobacco-grower cronies & contributors..

They are afraid to declare it illegal, because we all know how well that works, and they want the money, and yet they know it's a dangerous product..

and at the same time, if we ever all DID quit, how on earth would they fund children's' health care & education ?

We are little more to them than a convenient nuisance who they can tax and tax somemore..with impunity

As a smoker, I really do not mind all that much about paying the taxes, but i would like to see the OTHER "vices" taking hits as well.. like the boozers, whose car accidents & family violence are costing us all, and the donut-eaters/pizza-hounds/twinkie-soda pop-dorito fiends, whose clogged arteries are costing us a pretty penny too :)

[Clark2008]

24. Pssstt... the new No. 1 killer of Americans is caused

by obesity - not smoking.

:hi:

[Romulox]

27. Actually, the #1 killer of men and women is HEART DISEASE

which is exacerbated by both smoking and obesity.

We spend so much time warning people about lung cancer that most people don't understand the debilitating effects of nicotine on the heart...

[SoCalDem]

29. The #1 killer of men & women is

LIFE.. we ALL die.. some die young some die old..some die quickly of accidents..some die a lingering painful death.. we are ALL gonna die, and almost everyone alive today has been ingesting noxious stuff since birth) and before), so it's impossible to "tag" any ONE element as THE CAUSE of whatever does us in:)

[OnionPatch]

49. It does seem to penalize the poor.

If you own your own home, you can smoke. If you can't afford to buy a home and you smoke, I guess it's the porch for you. (If that's even allowed.) I heard that if you were a smoker renting now, you would be exempt until you moved to a new place. I can see it now...smokers clinging to their apartments for decades so they can continue to smoke in their homes.

[SoCalDem]

50. or racing out to their cars every few hours..and hoping a cop

doesn't shine a light in on them and haul them off to the pokey for polluting :)

[Warpy]

25. That would have been heaven to me when I was a kid

As it was, I was either outdoors, shivering under a tree while I read my books, or in my room with the door shut and a towel stuffed under it.

However, no, the nanny state has no right to dictate anything consenting adults to in their home that does not demonstrably injure any of the occupants.

That means meth labs are out.

[Romulox]

26. I grew up addicted to nicotine because of second hand smoke

I'm not advocating this ban, but second-hand smoke is not a victimless crime. In my case it was essentially child abuse.

[jgraz]

30. How many of you have lived next to an apartment full of smokers?

There's no way to keep the smoke out of your place. You pay the same rent as they do, why should you be forced to breathe in their fumes?

[Romulox]

35. Don't forget the putrid hotel rooms they leave behind. nt

[spoony]

39. Quite true.

Now there's something the smokers' rights brigade can't answer with, "fat people too!" Lol.

[jgraz]

40. Well, to be honest, second-hand fat CAN be a problem

Think middle seat on an airplane...

[Buns_of_Fire]

31. Oh, heck, let's just shoot EVERYBODY

:popcorn:

[Bake]

33. Good luck enforcing that one ...

They're gonna have to hire a lot more cops. They can call them the Smoke Nazis.

Bake

[starroute]

38. Can we at least make them shut their windows?

I have allergic bronchitis. When my neighbor smokes a cigar in his living-room on a summer evening, I'm forced to run around closing my windows -- no matter how hot it is -- if I want to be able to breathe. Why shouldn't he have to close his windows instead of me, since he's the one who wants to indulge his vices?

Beyond that, the reason I have this problem is that my mother smoked. She died of it -- "insufficiency of breath" was the technical diagnosis -- and my dad, who never smoked, now has emphysema as well.

Smoking is not a victimless crime -- and it's not nanny statism to try to protect people from having their lungs ambushed by it. Even the libertarians have a saying that goes something like, "Your rights end where your fist meets my nose," and it's nothing but tobacco company propaganda to suggest otherwise.

[RainDog]

43. couldn't apts have smoking bldgs and non-smoking...

and their windows could face different directions?

I cannot tolerate overly-perfumed people, whether male or female. The smell gives me a migraine and I throw up and have to go to sleep to make it go away. I know I'm not the only person with this problem.

but I would like to remind you that SMOKING IS NOT A CRIME. this is not tobac co. propaganda. this is the truth. you may wish smoking was a crime...in the same way I might wish denying evolution is a crime and people lose custody of their children or are not allowed to speak any words contrary to est. science. but I would never do that.

with smoking, there are ways that people can be accomodated. I am totally sick of the emphasis on tobacco smoke anyway. what about the fucking pcbs in your groundwater? Or all the other toxins in the water or in the air that are caused by big fat corporations that are not held accountable to any reasonable degree. Why is it only individuals who get singled out for "crimes" against others' health, but big biz can trash the entire ocean and atmosphere? which situation is actually worse for your health and the rest of the people on earth?

maybe corporations aren't targeted because it's easier to bully and coerce individuals while corporations don't care about your asthma or someone else's birth defect or someone else's cancer.

I'm sorry you have asthma, please understand. I just don't think you have to make others criminals in order to deal with your problem.

[Mythsaje]

41. We smoke outside

because we don't want our pets to have to breathe it.

How strange is THAT?

My ex smokes outside because she doesn't think the boys should have to breathe it either. Her choice. The funny thing is that I instituted that rule when our eldest was born. She was pissed about it, but now it's HER policy too.

But outright bans? Ugh. Next thing you know you can't smoke outside your place because someone might smell it. So then what? Stand on the corner in the rain off the property entirely?

Lovely.

[Donnachaidh]

42. Perhaps the tobacco industry WANTS a prohibition?

Think about it -- how many family fortunes of the wealthiest families in this country started with bootlegging?

Big Tobacco gets tax breaks for running anti-smoking ads. And of course there is that segment of our society who are self-designated *smoke police* who would buy into this sort of nonsense and run with it.

Ready for the next Prohibition drug? Hell, we're headed into a Depression - it almost seems the natural thing to do. :sarcasm:

[WinkyDink]

45. Is tobacco a legal product, or is it not?

[Toots]

46. Tobacco is far more harmful than pot but I don't see you raising the same fuss

All I am saying is they have precedent on their side...

[EvilAL]

47. I smoke outside

when my kids are home. I also smoke in the basement when the kids are here in the winter, but it is ventilated outside thru a window fan when I do. My girlfriend doesn't care that much for the basement smoking, evenm though it's ventilated. I told her I didn't commit to a 23 year debt to smoke in a fucking snowbank. One thing I don't like to do is refuse my smoking friends from smoking in my house when I invite them over. If my kids are here we go into the basement and they aren't allowed in while we are smoking. I find it makes for less people coming over duiring the winter months because of having to freeze in a snowbank to have a cigarette.

A few months ago I was leaving the hospital and put a smoke in my mouth when I exited. The security guard watched me as I went across the parking lot and when I was getting into my car I lit it up and got in.. before I could buckle up and start the car he was at my window tapping on the glass.. I rolled the window down and he told me I couldn't smoke "in my car, on hospital property" and I'd have to extinguish it. I calmly told him he could go fuck himself and if he didn't fuck off immediately I would put it out on his forehead. He grabbed his radio and said something about needing backup. Then he tried to stop me from leaving. I told him to get out of the way or I'd run him down. He told me the police were on the way.. I laughed and said the police don't bother with shit like that and if they wanted they could track me down and arrest me home. He moved out of the way and let me go.
Assholes taking their shitty security jobs way too seriously.

[4_TN_TITANS]

51. As a smoker

I have a problem with children being exposed to second hand smoke. It could be construed as a form of abuse for them to exist in a smoke filled environment.

However, any and all consenting adults should be able to smoke themselves to death in their homes.

[Cleita]

52. The tobacco police just won't stop. We gave them an inch and

now they want the whole mile. This is the reason we can't get reasonable gun legislation. This is the reason the NRA fights it tooth and nail because they know the gun police won't stop there. They will push to ban guns altogether like the tobacco police are doingnow. Didn't they learn from prohibition, that totally banning a substance breeds crime, not the other way around?