Look, I'm no fan of smoking, but there are serious civil liberties and freedom issues when it comes to banning smoking in a private business. Phil, how would you like the government to come in and tell you how to photograph weddings? Maybe they will tell you what to wear, what brand of cameras to use, that you can't eat while you take pictures, or that you have to give away the negatives (I know you already do this, but that was your choice, right?)

Look, if you're concerned about smokers at a bar, don't go to that bar. If enough anti-smokers refused to go to bars because of smoke eventually someone will open a non-smoking bar. Bars are private business, it should be their choice to allow smoking at their place of business as long as smoking is legal. If smoking is so much of a hazard, it should be out-lawed now. Not banned in one place or another. Businesses should have as much freedom of choice as private citizens.

I tell you, if you vote for these kinds of laws that infringe on the freedom of private business, next thing you know they will be telling you what to do in your house. If these smoking bans become wide-spread, I predict that the next step of the anti-smoking lobby will be to ban smoking around small children, even if it's in YOUR OWN HOME!

Yes I see what your saying, however you're comparing it to a situation that does not affect the health of anyone around them. I can't even remember how many times I've heard people say to someone "do you wanna go out to the bar" and their reply is: "na, I don't wanna deal with the smoke". Sooo, they sit at home and don't go out with friends just because they don't want to have a smoke stench on them. That is totally something I and many others deal with, its really not that big of deal, however my point is the health problems. I'm saying lets not let the smokers choose to hurt our health, lets stop them. If I was a smoker I probably would be totally against it, true, however I know it causes cancer, so why would I purposely want to hurt others?

Ban smoking in houses, and around buildings? HELL YES. Mind you I'm sitting here, in my room, with my fan on in my window getting some fresh air, and what do I smell? F*&$in neighbors outside on their deck smoking. YES RIGHT NOW AS I TYPE THIS!. This is what I hate, do I have to close my windows, turn the air on just cuz the F*&ks upstairs want to smoke? Hell no, they should pay my electric bill!

I did some research, and to answer your question about asbestos, I found this:

"In the United States, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has banned all construction-related products that have asbestos content of 1% or greater. It has also banned asbestos in all other friable (easily crushed by finger pressure) products."

So the EPA has completely banned the use of asbestos in any construction-related product (thus a house, bar, office building, whatever). If they would like to do this with cigarettes, it would be fine by me. However, smoking is still legal, and as long as it is, it's up to the owner of the building (citizen or corporation) to decide if smoking should be allowed, not the government.

Yea, and after I wrote all this Krissy looked at it and said something like "not all asbestos is proven to cause cancer, actually only few kinds of asbestos causes cancer" or something like that. Eh, technicalities, she worked at her cousins place, JMS Enviromental (http://jmsenviro.com ) and their main thing is testing for asbestos.

Anyway yes, my point of that is overall asbestos is proven to cause cancer, just like smoking. Really, I think marajuana should be leagalized and cigarettes outlawed, haha.

In that case, you're fighting the wrong crusade Phil. If you want smoking out-lawed, fight for that. I'm not a smoker, so I don't want a part of that argument at all.

My problem with the government banning smoking in one place and not the other is that it is unfair to business and it infringes on the owner's freedom to run his business as he pleases. If the government decides that smoking is dangerous to the public health, then ban it completely.

Until that happens, I see no reason why the government should allow one group of people (home owners) to make the decision and not another (business owners). It's unjust, and I wish business owners in towns that have instituted these bans would sue for their freedoms back.

yea, understandable. i dont see how the government could enforce smoking being outlawed totally, itd be rather hard, in resturants and stuff is a start...

I have asthma too, but I'm not all about banning smoking. It's their right.

Hey, just surfed on in from Chicago Blogs. Being a smoker in the midst of quitting, I think I can safely speak for the "bad" side with the following anecdote.

I went to college at ASU in Tempe. The neighboring city, Mesa, was a no-smoking-in-public-places city. Most people I knew didn't smoke but for those that did, you best believe that Mesa was not a place we regularly patronized. If we wanted to go to a restaraunt or bar and there was a choice between going to the one closer in Mesa or to the one a little bit further out of the way, we'd choose to go further out of the way. Why? Because no smoking in a bar is ludicrous. Then again, Mesa has a strong Mormon population so that's not necessarily an issue there.

My point is this- smokers will take their patronage elsewhere if a business or village ordinance bans smoking. Granted, smokers are in the minority but they are a significant enough part of the population for it to be fiscally detrimental to a business to ban smoking. This has been proven in many instances. The only way to prevent this is with a statewide ban so that there is no competition over cities or counties.

And to answer your question, "What right do the non-smokers have?" They have the right to take their patronage elsewhere. The smokers do it regularly.

My relatives in Canada tell me cigarettes are up to 10 bucks a pack there! There's no reason for them to be so expensive, except that the govt. wants people to quit--because health care is paid for by the govt, and smokers cost the health care system lots of money. I wish we'd charge that much for them here in the states, so more people would quit.

Call me a bad person.

karla, i couldnt agree more. they should reduce the gas price, and increase the cigarette price, $20 a pack, and $.99 a gallon.