Indoor smoking ban in Cook County, IL

[Jay]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sectio ... id=5123785

No more smoking indoors and you have to smoke 15 feet away from the entrance. CA has been doing this a while apparently and more and more places are doing this.

Personally, even if I was still a smoker I'd totally agree with this. To be honest, when I was a smoker and having been newly exposed to the non smoking environment in CA I felt that the dining experience had improved because of the lack of smoke and stuff in the air. Also, it wasn't a huge deal to walk outside to smoke and I could easily go an entire meal without smoking.

[araby]

my city just voted on this also, it will go in effect in June I think. I am looking forward to it.

[kaharthemad]

i have some problems with this. If the owner wants to implement this fine. otherwise the people can go somewhere else. Their store their right.
Aslo there should be a provision in this. i used to smoke an occasional cigar, mostly the more expensive ones coming out of cigar shops. Sorry but not being allowed to smoke in a cigar shop is like saying sorry your not allowed to eat in cafe'.

any aficionado knows a cigar is best after a long humador cycle. once that cigar hits air flavors fade fast. So most cigar smokers would step in the smoke room to cut and smoke the cigar.

[Gypsiyee]

I only saw briefly on the news, but that - I believe it's California - is passing a statewide ban on smoking anywhere.. even in your own house. While it's great and I totally agree with a law like this to prevent smokers from ruining a dining experience, I don't quite understand how any law can tell you that you aren't allowed to do something in the privacy of your own home really unless they plan on outlawing and illegalizing the sale or possession of cigarettes.

[Hylissa]

It's been like this for years here /shrug ... they are just now passing the smoking infront of doorways ban now though~

[Arlos]

I've never heard of anything trying to get p assed here inCA that would ban smoking within your own home. Now, landlords can put conditions in your lease to where you're not allowed to smoke inside the unit you're renting, but anyone who actually owns their own home is free to do whatever they want.

I am all for bans on smoking indoors in public places, though. Plenty of evidence how harmful secondhand smoke is to employees who have to work in it, and lots of people out there with severe asthma, for whom smoke in an enclosed place can be immediately life-threatening. Sure, an asthmatic wouldn't go buy cigars for themselves, but they might go buy some for a friend, and the smell of unsmoked tobacco isn't harmful, it's once you burn it that there's a problem.

-Arlos

[Tacks]

Fine with me, smokers can eat shit and die...oh they're almost doing that already.

[Harrison]

I think it would be much more funny to watch them pay $15 a pack than ban smoking altogether.

[ClakarEQ]

About damn time if you ask me.

I wonder how long it will take before everyone accepts cameras in our homes so we don't break the law

/sarcasm off

[Harrison]

needs moar cryingz

[Yamori]

I LIVE IN COOK COUNTY!!! Warg.

I'm majorly against these types of laws.

As much as I hate smoking, smokers, and smoke (what kind of dummy starts the habbit in this day and age? Baffling), this is a major breach of property rights. All of the rhetoric centers around the public's "right" to avoid 2nd hand smoke, or the smoker's "right" to do as they please, or the ridiculousness of having this policy for places where people go to drink poison, eat giant wads of artery busting fried fats, and/or seek to have hot sweaty shameful sex with disease riddled strangers:

But absolutely no one even mentions a thing about the bar/restaraunt owner's right to establish policies for what type of behavior is allowed within their own property. They are the ones who are effected the most by these laws, yet their voice is the softest. Boo.

[Jay]

i have some problems with this. If the owner wants to implement this fine. otherwise the people can go somewhere else. Their store their right.
Aslo there should be a provision in this. i used to smoke an occasional cigar, mostly the more expensive ones coming out of cigar shops. Sorry but not being allowed to smoke in a cigar shop is like saying sorry your not allowed to eat in cafe'.

any aficionado knows a cigar is best after a long humador cycle. once that cigar hits air flavors fade fast. So most cigar smokers would step in the smoke room to cut and smoke the cigar.

Well Kahar, they can designate rooms to smoke in so your local cigar store can have a room specifically for that like a hotel can. I know of smoke shops that have a smoking area for that purpose.

[Gypsiyee]

I've never heard of anything trying to get p assed here inCA that would ban smoking within your own home. Now, landlords can put conditions in your lease to where you're not allowed to smoke inside the unit you're renting, but anyone who actually owns their own home is free to do whatever they want.

-Arlos

this was on the news very recently, as in within this week. i'll see if i can't find an article on it; like i said, i just caught a brief clip, and honestly i'm not sure where it was at all, i thought i heard cali but i could definitely be mistaken.

[Harrison]

for places where people go to drink poison, eat giant wads of artery busting fried fats, and/or seek to have hot sweaty shameful sex with disease riddled strangers

Hmmmm, last I checked, none of those harmed the people around them.
Sad attempt to argue why morons should be allowed to harm everyone around them legally.

[Phlegm]

In San Francisco, there is a ban of smoking in all parks, public squares and other outdoor spaces that the city owns. There are other cities in California, Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills, that have similar ban.

[Tossica]

I 100% agree with Yamori. Banning smoking in some areas I agree with but banning it all together is ridiculous. If I want to open a business that caters to smokers and fully advertises that smoking will take place and is encouraged, it should be my right to do so. You can't go to a place called Smokey McCough and Chokes and NOT expect to inhale smoke. If you don't want to inhale second hand smoke, DON'T go there. If you like to smoke, you have a place to go and the only people you are hurting are the people that choose to go there.

[The Kizzy]

I have only stopped smoking for 3 weeks and 5 days, but it does make a huge difference. WHen someone at work comes back from a smoke break, I can smell them 20 yards away, it makes me want to gag. I can actually taste food now without having to drown everything in Tobasco or whatever.

They have a rule at work, smoking area on breaks is in your car or past the blue line (in the back of the parking lot where we park anyway). To me, its not far enough away.

[Burgy99]

Theres no one more harsh against smoking than ex smokers...

[The Kizzy]

Ive heard that about drinkers too

[Burgy99]

You haven't been able to smoke inside here in NY for a long time. I smoke, but i'm fine with the law. I don't smoke in my house, and I don't like going to house parties where there is lots of smoke indoors. I didn't even like it that much in bars, it would be so dry and hazy in there it was gross.

The only place I think smoking should be allowed inside, is at Denny's. I miss going there and hanging out at 3am after the bar closes.

[Gaazy]

whaIS this new news? Weve had this for years almost statewide

[Burgy99]

I think a few states were left behind untill just recently Gaazy.

[ClakarEQ]

In Italy for example the banned smoking in all restaraunts(sp) but allowed them to implement "smoke rooms". These are rooms sealed off from the rest of the restaraunt and require smoke filtration / air flow handlers to direct "filtered" smoke outside.

eating and drinking bad food does affect me. Who do you think pays for shit like medical care? Just because the "hurt" isn't here and now doesn't mean you don't pay the piper eventually.

I am not pro smoker but folks are missing the bigger precident here. While smokeing is bad and it has been proven, 2nd hand smoke is bad and proven.

What happens when alcohol is proven bad and that 50% of accidents are in some way alcohol related, and they ban drinking? (a far stretch I know but just saying )

[Tossica]

ps.

No cigs for me for over 6 months.

[Zanchief]

What happens when alcohol is proven bad and that 50% of accidents are in some way alcohol related, and they ban drinking? (a far stretch I know but just saying )

It's really going to suck when the ban drinking and driving.