Mayor Bloomberg attempts to ban smoking in public parks and beaches.........

You go, Mayor Bloomberg. I wish it was banned everywhere.

My mom smoked when I was a kid. Even then I knew how unhealthy it was...I used to hide her cigarette pack (or take some cigarettes out) because I was so worried about her. She quit cold turkey many years ago, thank God.

Much as I dislike the habit, this ban is a terrible idea. Sorry folks, but bad as it is, cigarette smoking is legal and people have a right to do it if they wish. This is a perfect example of government intrusion into the lives of citizens.

So far Bloomberg has banned transfat from use in restaurants, is campaigning to cut the amount of salt used in pre-packaged and restaurant foods, and wanted a tax on soda because "it would save lives". Now he wants to extend an already extensive ban on smoking. This ban is on public spaces - 1700 parks and 14 miles of beaches. What's next, making it mandatory to wear suncreen when outdoors???

Bloomberg would do better attending to the city's financial problems and stay out of New Yorkers' personal choices. New York needs a mayor, not a nanny.

The fact that some smokers are rude doesn't mean all of them are like that, and this is a perfect example for that..It seems as though you are upset with how people are rude, not with the fact that they smoke.
It's such a dumb idea to ban smoking in public- if smokers are to endanger their health and put themselves at such a huge risk for diseases- then why not at least let them do it without making them feel even worse about it? They're already paying for it with their health, and they know that. No need to add even more stigma and negativity to it than that.
If it's an enclosed environment, I understand, but outside?? Sorry just makes no sense to me.

There's been all this talk about diet, obesity, smoking and it makes me angry, I wish the government and media left people alone for once.. Let them be fat and smoke and enjoy it, if that's what they wish.

I dunno, I don't think anyone is a fan of "big government", but I'm finding it hard to disagree with this particular ban. This sort of thing isn't about protecting people from themselves; it's about the apparent "Yeah, it's killing me, so it may as well kill you too" mentality that many people seem to harbor. When they say you can't smoke in your own home, now that's a problem.

I think it would be great fun to get the appropriate license and juggle nitroglycerin vials on street corners, but I would hope someone would step in and stop me from doing so.

My city has banned smoking in public parks. Whether it is enforced or not is a different story, but my state has very strict laws on smoking in or around public buildings, and the laws are getting stricter all the time.

I am an ex smoker, but I never smoked in the rude way some people do. The more laws against public smoking, the more obnoxious some personality types become over it.

I complained countless times about having to walk through a cloud of smoke to get in and out of my grocery store before the law finally started being enforced.

And...I pick up a young woman daily at a sheltered workshop (for special needs adults) where a certain group of employees always take a smoke break every day at that time. I really resented walking through their smoke, and the workshop was breaking the law allowing it. So I complained. It took several complaints before something was done.

Now, one of the young women who works there (not one of the special needs adults, called consumers these days) is deeply resentful of my complaints and gives me dirty looks every day. It's hilarious and I laugh when she does it.

He can protect people's lungs from second-hand smoke outdoors after all non-electric vehicles are banned from the streets of NYC.

I am all for the smoking bans for indoor places - I'm ready for Dorchester County to adopt it, since Charleston County has already. Some places have made the choice in the county already which is nice. I'm a former smoker, was for 4 years, grew up with my dad chain smoking. Now I can barely stand to be in the house up there.

As for smoking outdoors, I think it should be left alone. It's outdoors, and what would be banned next? The only outdoors regulation I'm for is to ban it by the entrances/exits of buildings.

I would tend to agree, except! History has shown this to be how blanket bans begin. What may just begin as a ban affecting indoor places of public business would in short time be asking the question, "Well, why not outdoors?"

The entire point of passing a very limited, narrow ban is simply to be able to ask "Why here and not there?" in pursuit of much more encompassing and rigid bans.

But why should non smokers have to pay for with their health? Second hand smoke is just as dangerous. I think it should be banned in all public places.

Of course, then the amount of coal burned to produce the electricity for the cars will go up, increasing the pollution.

I guess I'd like to see studies of how second hand smoke is more dangerous in an open environment than other pollutants we breathe in daily...
When I worked at my summer job, we used so many chemicals that were carcinogenic if their fumes are inhaled, all went up fume hoods and were released into the air, all legal, because once in the atmosphere it's no longer dangerous when it disperses..

I agree. I think I would be okay with smoking and non-smoking sections though, like it used to be indoors.

I smoke and it didnt bother me when it got banned from restaurants and stuff like that because I never smoked in restaurants because I dont like the smell of it when Im eating, I even sat in the non smoking side. However though outside is a completely different story, with all the other junk that gets put in the air from factories, vehicles, etc its kind of a moot point to ban smoking alone if your not going to ban all the other poisonous stuff too. I dont think that smokers should be throwing butts on the ground etc that should be classified as littering. If I smoke outside somewhere Im considerate enough to walk away from people and be off by myself, I put my butts in my purse and throw them away in a garbage can if one is readily available and I ALWAYS make sure they are completely cooled down and out (I actually will hold it down on the palm of my hand to make sure its chilled to the touch). I dont think that non smokers should have to have smoke blown in their faces but at the same time just because I dont drink doesnt mean I think the rest of the world should stop drinking and it be banned because it can be deadly. People all around should be a little more tolerant and respectful about things like that, I dont smoke in places where its banned and if I see I no smoking sign I dont even carry them on me I just leave them in my car or whereever, now if someone tries to tell me I cant smoke in my own house or on my property we are going to have a real big problem because its my body my choice and if I want to smoke I darn well will do as I please.

Not all smokers are out to be rude and blow smoke in your face. The fact is that second hand smoke is not as dangerous as the media would have you believe. You actually have to BREATHE it in not just smell it or see it for it to affect you. And unless you plan on rivering or shotgunning with a smoker you're pretty much safe.

I'm (mostly) an ex smoker and I still get pi**ed over the fact that they banned smoking in bars and smoking sections, as I do enjoy having a smoke with a beer or a glass of wine.

Now they are trying to ban it in parks and on beaches?? Where there is PLENTY of clean air for everyone to breathe?? I can understand people maybe not wanting to be in a crowded smoke-filled bar...but outside?

Pretty soon you wont be able to smoke on your front porch or in your own home!

I'm really tired of small groups of people trying (and occasionally succeeding) to upperhand the constitution.

I don't have to smoke next to you but guess what, you don't have to be by me either so one of us can walk 5-10 feet away and you're in the clear. Better yet, just dont hang around any ash trays.

The fact is that I'm pretty sure standing a few feet away from a smoker is a lot healthier for you than starting your car up in the morning.




Also...please can we make flicking your cigarette butts on the ground a punishable littering offense? I also hate people who flick their butts out the window..it is so unclassy, especially when most cars come with ashtrays, you can buy nifty cheap ones to go in cup holders, and usually an ashtray is within a 10 foot walk on any given street.

But the car can be considered a necessary evil. If I didn't have my car, I wouldn't have my job, as my work is itinerant.

And I really really resent having to smell like cigarette smoke all day because I had to walk past a smoker (or worse, a crowd of), to get into a building.

Or to be in a public place: at a park, fair or zoo, for instance, and not be able to get away from the smoke. Smokers everywhere since it is not yet controlled in those places.

My young woman with wheelchair mobility, for instance, has had to cope with a cigarette in her face more than once as a smoker dwaddles along with cig in hand, not paying attention to what's around them.

Sure I move as soon as I realize, or as soon as I am able if we are in a crowd, but by then it's too late, we now smell like cigarette smoke, and my (asthmatic) disabled consumer is coughing, lucky she wasn't burnt.

I smoked for 24 years. When I was a teenager I didn't think about it much, but by the time I was in my early twenties and my beloved cat Baby (rb 1/98) developed asthma, I became an apologetic smoker, never smoking in public places, and never smoking in my own home.

It's not about "free choice" when it affects other people. There are noise ordinances too. Someone's loud music at 2 a.m may not bother them, but it bothers everyone else.

Silence, and clean air, are not intrusive. Loud music and cigarette smoke are. "Do it, if you must, but keep it away from me." Have consideration for the other people in the world.

Thats odd...at all the Zoo's around here there are designated smoking sections, but I mostly think that is for the welfare of the animals and to keep garbage such as butts out of the enclosures. I can't really speak for fairs though since I don't go to them often but fairs and carnivals sometimes seem to attract people worse than smokers lol.

I am all for having designated smoking sections but when you start telling people that they aren't allowed in a certain place if they want to smoke you're only hurting the economy.

It is true that people should learn to be more courteous of others though. I was always an "apologetic" smoker and I've never smoked in my own home, even despite growing up with parents who always smoked inside the house.

I just like to have friends and I wouldn't want them to dislike comming into my house if it smelled bad lol!

Well then they need to stop pussyfooting around and just flat out make smoking illegal already.

That's honestly the only way we'll get anywhere.

I'd like it to be more clear-cut anyways because its getting hard to remember where its okay to smoke and where it's not okay to smoke.

Although I think now that soon we will be required to have mandatory health insurance, that should help offset the medical expenses.

I'm not sure what it is but poor people always seem to be able to afford that pack of cigarettes. Poor people are such a drain on the economy huh? Always getting free treatment from hospitals...maybe our ERs should just start turning everyone away that can't afford a ridiculous $3000 cat scan.

It would really help boost the economy because then all the poor people would die off and so would most of middle class and then it would leave rich people only in the world and everyone could afford everything and life would be perfect.


But in all seriousness... It either needs to be okay to smoke, or illegal to smoke. All of this nonsense about banning it here or banning it there is just wasting more money going towards ridiculous campaigns that in the long run aren't really going to solve any problems, health-related or otherwise.

It makes me laugh to think that all the money spent advertising smoke-free campaigns could have been used to give some homeless person a pretty comfortable life.

That just doesn't make sense to me. Smokers would still smoke just like pot smokers do.

True, but do pot smokers stroll down the street blazing a joint?

Of course people would still smoke but it would be in private and secretly to avoid getting into trouble. So in essence...yes, it would become just like pot smokers.

Thus pretty much solving the problem that everyone passing bans is complaining about, which is second hand smoke polluting the air around them within a 5 foot radius.

So solve one problem by starting several more?

I guess all the pot smokers in jail would have company. The drug dealers would have a lot more product to sell too. The price of cigarettes could plummet! No more taxing them.

As a former smoker, I hate smoking. I hate what it does to the smoker and I hate that non smokers are affected by it. I think outlawing smoking is pretty far over the top though. As far as smoking in public, I'd be happy with outdoor smoking allowed, but in designated areas only.

I guess its just one of those things that's always going to be a battle.

Yeah. BTW the kitty in your siggy is adorable!

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That first link cites studies by the WHO and American Cancer Society (http://www.bmj.com/content/326/7398/1057.full) concluding that passive smoking isn't a health issue, though.