<p>
</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>10char</p>
<p>We have a ban on smoking within 25 feet of campus buildings but no one enforce that.</p>
<p>^^ rat the mutha****as out</p>
<p>[q]Why?[/q]</p>
<p>Smokers made the decision to smoke and pay lots of taxes to do so. If adverse health effects were not such a problem and people were not wanting the state to pay for treatment of cancers and diseases caused by their smoking, the states would probably encourage smoking for the tax revenue alone. Since smoking bans keep smokers outdoors, the effects of secondhand smoke are much less. Because of the tax revenue, little harm to myself (a nonsmoker), and the fact that they are adults who made their own decision, I see no harm in not giving them some respect. However, defying smoking bans or keeping children or dependents in places such as homes and cars that are smoke-filled is not okay, IMHO.</p>
<p>WuTang sounds like the kind of person who throws blood on people buying fur coats, or breaks into research labs and destroys all their stuff because they study chimps.</p>
<p>WuTang, if a guy CHOSE to get drunk, CHOSE to drive and lost his legs, would you walk like a gimp or make fun of him for it? It’s not like it was accidental, he made a conscious choice to risk life and limb just like a smoker makes a conscious choice to risk, well, life. Smokers don’t choose to get cancer. They choose to do things that can get them cancer, just like drunk drivers.</p>
<p>Except smokers harm other people…</p>
<p>The harm caused by occasionally being around smokers is minimal at best unless you have serious asthma or something like that. Even many newer places that allow smoking have advanced ventilation systems that take out most of the smoke. Unless you are constantly around smokers, specifically indoors in a poorly ventilated area, the chance of getting cancer or a disease from secondhand smoke is very small. Some smokers live long lives and do not die from tobacco-related illnesses. In A Man Without a Country or another of his later books, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. joked that he should probably sue the cigarette companies because their product didn’t kill him.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Got a paper for that? </p>
<p>My chem research includes polyaromatic hydrocarbons and other carcinogenic products of advanced pyrolysis / combustion; we measure emissions and also do carcinogen testing on mice. What do you do? Where’s your evidence?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A smoker nearly killed me when I was six. Needless to say, I have since not held the smallest degree of rage for people who smoke in public.</p>
<p>So I think I will disagree.</p>
<p>Besides – if they have the right to disturb our peaceful air, we have every right to make insulting comments and disturb their peace.</p>
<p>Eye for an eye. </p>
<p>Or is it neuron for a lung cell?</p>
<p>Many things other than smokers disturb our air too, many of which we cannot control ie volcanoes. It is perfectly okay to dislike smoking, but everything has a tradeoff. People have lots of brain cells, and it’s okay to lose some, it’d happen anyway.</p>
<p>Smokers are people too, some are nice, some aren’t. If prohibition is any clue, people will do things regardless of their legality. If you don’t want to be around smokers, then avoid them. Going to college or even leaving your house is technically not necessary.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Virtually every smoker I’ve met is a jerk. Some smokers are nice to your face but they are ******s behind your back.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m not talking about legal prohibition. I’m talking about cultural hostility. Making fun of smokers when you see them smoke. Throwing water at them (to put out their cigarette). Making comments about their teeth. Spraying Et3N at their faces. Etc.</p>
<p>On a larger economical scale: refusing to hire smokers, and refusing to buy from establishments that sell cigarettes (supermarkets are an issue but they can be boycotted with sufficient social momentum).</p>
<p>So its not their smoking that annoys you, but the fact that sometimes they endanger the health, etc. of others, right?</p>
<p>So would a childless, unmarried smoker, who smokes only on his own property, would not be a problem to you?</p>
<p>If so, I’d agree with that.</p>
<p>Yeah he can kill himself all he wants. </p>
<p>So long as he doesn’t try to promote a smoking culture by encouraging others to smoke.</p>
<p>^^^Which I think the government is trying to enforce. Society for the most part despises it and the government controls advertising. For chewing tobacco, people admit that it looks gross and causes cancer, so it is also becoming culturally unacceptable.</p>