<p>It never ceases to amaze me when I see people who assert their right to stink.</p>
<p>“The air isn’t owned by anyone. Any of us can do with it as we please, on public property.”</p>
<p>This is completely false. The air surrounding the United States is under the legal authority of the federal government, just like the ocean surrounding Miami Beach, the rock beneath Mt. McKinley, and the wild bison in Yellowstone National Park. Furthermore, even if the air were not within United States authority, YOU are, and the government has the right to control YOU in countless ways (e.g. you can’t smoke marijuana at all, not even in your own home).</p>
<p>The federal Clean Air Act, among many other laws, makes it illegal for you to emit certain substances into the air, including some found in cigarette smoke such as benzene and formaldehyde:</p>
<p><a href=“http://epa.gov/air/caa/caa112.txt[/url]”>http://epa.gov/air/caa/caa112.txt</a></p>
<p>And citizens have the right to sue other citizens who pollute the air in violation of the legal standards:</p>
<p><a href=“http://epa.gov/air/caa/caa304.txt[/url]”>http://epa.gov/air/caa/caa304.txt</a></p>
<p>As it happens, the government has thus far chosen not to set the emissions limits low enough to include individual cigarette smokers, but it has already made it against the law to emit the same chemicals in larger amounts, and there’s absolutely no doubt than it would be within its legal authority to limit emissions from cigarettes if it chose to do so.</p>
<p>Yea for (former?) government attorneys. </p>
<p>From an alum of DOJ.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Agreed. Smokers can make things rather uncomfortable for me at times, especially if I’ve been biking quite a-ways and I have to make it through their cloud of poison gas while trying to hold my breath. I think that the system at our school allows members of the dorm to have a majority vote on where smoking will be allowed in relation to their dorm, but I don’t know, since I commute.</p>
<p>“The real objection is that non smokers just plain don’t like having to deal with it. Smoking being unhealthy is a straw man.”</p>
<p>I agree with this to some degree–but it doesn’t really help your argument. You don’t necessarily have the right to do something that is disruptive and annoying to other people, even if it isn’t physically harmful to them. Thus, for example, the university could ban people from carrying around loud boom boxes because the noise is annoying and disruptive. Both the smoke and the noise are different from your example of bleached hair, because smoke and noise actually intrude on others and directly interfere with their ability to use and enjoy the public space. (Actually, the guy with boom box would have a better argument than you, because he might claim free speech rights–you actually don’t have any specific right to smoke in public, other than the general right to be left alone.) So, yeah, this may be the tyranny of the majority, but in this case the minority is out of luck.</p>
<p>If they can ban skateboards in most areas then they damn sure have the right to ban smoking in most areas.</p>
<p>Lol to the skateboarding part. Half the reason I stopped skating in high school was that everywhere we were baned from skating. Too many close calls running from cops. Perhaps this would work on smokers if the law was enforced on campus.</p>