Smoking In Public
June 6th, 2004There is a lot of talk of late of banning smoking in public. People who oppose this ban are wrong*. I will now dismantle any argument you may have heard against the smoking ban:
1. If you ban smoking in public, you have to ban car exhausts
Not bad. However, there are four main flaws with this argument: if your car is modern, efficient and clean, car exhaust fumes are less toxic than cigarette smoke; cars tend to be used in well ventilated areas; car exhausts cannot be selectively aimed at people’s faces; and cars are useful rather than recreational (to the point where society would stand still if they were illegal).
2. It is my right as a human being to smoke
It is my right as a human being not to be given lung cancer by an idiot. My right not to die clearly takes precedence over your right to kill yourself. Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. Your right to exhale carcinogens ends the exact same place. (I actually stole that soundbite from someone on TV who inexplicably replaced the phrase “the exact same place” with “at my place of work”. Nice soundbite, idiot.)
3. If you don’t like smoke, don’t go to bars where people smoke.
I see. I can, off the top of my head, think of three smoking bars I frequent called “The Oak”, whereas I know of precisely one non-smoking bar (and, for the record, very nice it is, too). I think I should be allowed to socialise without being given a choice of “Arcadia or cancer”.
4. It is part of our culture.
So is Marco from Big Brother.
5. Use the non-smoking area if you don’t like smoke.
Do you know how many pubs and bars have a permanant non-smoking area? I can think of precisely two, and that includes the non-smoking bar I mentioned earlier, and in the other you have to walk through the smoking area to get to the non-smoking area, or indeed the bar. (I can cope with that, but I’ve met the odd heavy asthmatic who couldn’t. I guess it’s excessive to cater to people with such specific disabilities everywhere.)
Update, 20051027:
A comment on the BBC website states that “having a smoking section in a pub or restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool”. Genius.
That’s all the invalid arguments I can think of in favour of public smoking for now. I suppose you can submit some in the forum and I can destroy those as well if you’d like.
*Some people say it’s a matter of opinion, but more informed people know that some opinions (like, say, “Saturday Night Live is a clever and satirical look at modern life and everyone involved is a genius.”) are just wrong. Some things are better than others no matter what their fans think. They’re biased, after all — they’re fans.
Tags for this article: Smoking
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8 Responses to “Smoking In Public”
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May 1st, 2007 at 18:19
Car exhaust fumes are less toxic than cigarette smoke? Where, exactly, did you come up with that little chunk of wisdom? Let`s test that theory. Tonight,you sit in your garage with an idling car and I`ll sit in mine with 50 chain-smokers.In the morning,I`ll come over to drive your corpse to the morgue.
May 1st, 2007 at 22:04
Oh dear, no-one is disputing the toxicity of car fumes or that being in (and this is important) an unventilated atmosphere with them will kill you.
How much smoke do you think one car makes in comparison to one cigarette? Do you really think 50 chain smokers can create the same amount of smoke.
When you multiply up the amounts to the same level, then you will find that cigarette smoke is more toxic. And I’LL be pleased to come inspect the results of your survey on that one.
May 1st, 2007 at 22:05
http://www.google.com/search?q=car+exhaust+cigarette&btnG=Search
Pick whichever you like best.
(At time of writing, this search threw up several pages saying cigarette smoke was ten times as toxic as diesel exhaust.)
Edit: Just in case the results have changed, here’s a peer-reviewed paper from the British Medical Journal to the above effect. Are we still feeling snide?
May 2nd, 2007 at 18:50
Feeling snide? Nope, not in the least, just patronized and highly amused.When it comes to toxins,dosage is everything,something the good people on both sides of the smoking-ban issue almost always ignore.Comparing car exhaust and cigarette smoke is idiotic,yet both sides do so,claiming,as always, that it proves nothing/everything.
What amuses me are the responses I receive.Smokers and non smokers have one wonderful trait in common; they both cling to their “science” like a fat kid on a candy bar.Any time anyone challenges said science their response,like yours and Adams`, is usually quick and indignant.
May 2nd, 2007 at 19:08
Well yes, I quite agree that comparing car exhaust and cigarette smoke is idiotic. That’s why I wrote a blog entry about how saying “if you ban smoking in public, you have to ban car exhausts” is “wrong”.
But if I was going to make that case in a reasonable way I had to back up that statement with a sensible argument, and my argument was that it’s ludicrous to suggest that smoking restrictions should apply to exhaust fumes because exhaust pipes release a less toxic substance in a better ventilated place for a better reason. Alright, so maybe they release more of it, but nobody actually receives that dose because the car will, if it’s being used properly, spread it over an area of several square miles.
I “cling to [my] science” because “my science” is proper, peer-reviewed, real science. It’s evidence. It proves that I am right. So please forgive me for getting indignant when people turn up and glibly try to deny proven facts with badly constructed thought experiments. And I’ll thank you not to put the word “science” in inverted commas when referring to respected medical journals.
May 3rd, 2007 at 03:26
Andrew,old bean,lighten up.
December 7th, 2007 at 21:11
http://www.forcesitaly.org/italy/download/invern_critique2.pdf
c’mon, you cant seriously think that car exhaust isnt at least equally as dangerous/emits an equal amount of co,
the experiment is flawed in too many ways to mention, however ill bet my life on it that cars are worse, so the next time you see a traffic jam full of hummers and anti smoker activists light up that smoke and tell them to eat shit,
ban all public health risks, not just smoking,
December 7th, 2007 at 21:19
I’m not sure what your point is, but for what it’s worth I agree that it should be illegal to drive cars inside public buildings.