Here's my opinion you can have yours. (Should smoking be banned in public places?)

Member Name: kimking

Product:	Should smoking be banned in public places?
Date:	11/06/04 (1418 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I'v got it off my chest

Disadvantages: Won't make any difference.

There seems to be a lot of fuss lately about smoking in public places so I thought I would add my two penny worth. Firstly let me tell you that I am not a smoker but once was. I was introduced to smoking at a very early age as young as about 7 or 8. I am the youngest of three children, my two brothers are 6 and 4 years older than me and one day I walked into their bed room and caught them red handed with fags in hand. They were afraid I would be a tell tell tit on them so made me smoke my first ciggie, I can remember standing there blowing through the cigarette and my brother explaining I had to suck the smoke not blow it.

I suppose I was about 14 when I really started for my self and of course my friends, I wanted to look cool too. At the age of 23 I was told by my doctor that I was pregnant and after already suffering one miscarriage I wasn?t going to let anything that might be in the slightest bit bad for me or baby enter my body and so gave up immediately, after my beautiful healthy baby boy was born I found I could not afford to start again. I have now been a none smoker for just over 24 years.


So do I think smoking should be banned in public places?


Lets look at it this way, ok lets ban it, it will be so much better for everyone?s health won?t it. Oh but wait a minute what?s the point of that when car fumes churn out much worst than the average smoker so we had best ban them too. What a lovely healthy place this would be with out cigarette smoke and car fumes, Oh but what about animals, I?m asthmatic and animal fur can really play that up so we had best ban them as well and while we?re about we had better ban flowers too because pollen can be a major cause of asthma attacks and such. Oh then of course we must also ban electricity pylons and phone masts and many many other things that we all really n
eed in every day life.

Another way of looking at it is cost of policing public areas in order to catch the offenders; this will cost the government and the tax payer more money proberly about the same amount as it will save on the NHS so no one will be better off.

It is said that that stress is the main cause of heart attacks which is in turn the main killer in this country, ok they think smoking can increase your chances of having a heart attack but it is also said that to a smoker, smoking can relieve stress one of the main causes of heart failure.

Some people stand on their soap boxes and blame smokers for the using up all the money set aside for sick people on the NHS but smokers are heavily taxed and again how much do car drivers cost us also, drinkers, drug addicts and even those awful people who work to hard and suffer heart attacks, they don?t get blamed do they?

I have given the question ?should smoking be banned in public places? a great deal of thought and can see many arguments for and against but my view is that banning it is just a drop in the ocean. As for people who want to go out and not suffer the smell of smoke in a pub or restaurant, well they do have a point, who wants to eat while other people are blowing smelly smoke across their table.

One of the things that amuses me the most is those silly café?s and restaurants that think you can put two tables next to each other in the same room, call one a non smoking table and the one next to a smoking table and think that the non smoking table wont be able to smell or breath in the smoke. Don?t they know that smoke floats around in the air?

I live with smokers although I don?t smoke my self the thing I hate most is the smell of a old ash tray or the room the next day but that is just a personal preference so for this one I am going to stay sitting well and truly on the fence a
s I can see many sides of this one, except to say I think it would be polite for smokers to at the very least refrain from smoking in restaurants when other people are eating.

I do hope that I haven?t bored you too much.
Thanks for reading.

Kim.

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