Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
Envision a room about 20'x24'. No A/C system. Put a bunch of guys in it, playing poker. All are smokers but one. At the end of a four-hour session, they'll all walk out, some feeling pretty grungy from the miserable atmosphere. The non-smoker may well be sick.
Now envision the same deal, except that during the four hours, a small car is in the room with them, engine running. Will any walk out at all?
So why is smoking on a public sidewalk, out on the street, such a big deal? There's one heckuva lot more auto/bus grunge in the air than there is second-hand smoke.
Back some 25 years ago at a medical convention in Barcelona, Spain, some doctors chided a fellow attendee for smoking. His rejoinder was that since he lived in NYC it wouldn't hurt him. Just living there was the equivalent of two packs a day.
I attended a business conference in Mexico City in 1978. I automatically cut my smoking to under a half-pack a day. Didn't feel any need, given how much "freebie" the air gave me. Example of problem: At a rooftop garden at the Maria Isabella hotel, a waiter would bring a fresh table cloth every fifteen to twenty minutes. The "old" one would have a speck of soot at one-inch spacing, all over it. You quickly learned to sit with your hand over your coffee or your drink.
I've owned a couple of night clubs, back before the anti-smoking fetish. From nothing but courtesy, I instituted non-smoking areas; it was easy. They were to the upwind side of the air movement. An exhaust fan provided "fresh" air, if city air can be called fresh.
Yes, there are many problems as we try more and more to make life nice for everybody. At some point, however, we begin to ignore the personal responsibility of those who are so unfortunate to have these various handicaps.
You think it doesn't jangle my nervous system to meet some beauteous sweet young thing, and her sweet-smellum gives me a case of the choke-up? Or to know a bunch of folks who gripe about my cigarettes, but are happy to roll a joint? And talking about odors which give you a case of the gripes, try being stuck with somebody who bathes at least once a month...
, Art
Now envision the same deal, except that during the four hours, a small car is in the room with them, engine running. Will any walk out at all?
So why is smoking on a public sidewalk, out on the street, such a big deal? There's one heckuva lot more auto/bus grunge in the air than there is second-hand smoke.
Back some 25 years ago at a medical convention in Barcelona, Spain, some doctors chided a fellow attendee for smoking. His rejoinder was that since he lived in NYC it wouldn't hurt him. Just living there was the equivalent of two packs a day.
I attended a business conference in Mexico City in 1978. I automatically cut my smoking to under a half-pack a day. Didn't feel any need, given how much "freebie" the air gave me. Example of problem: At a rooftop garden at the Maria Isabella hotel, a waiter would bring a fresh table cloth every fifteen to twenty minutes. The "old" one would have a speck of soot at one-inch spacing, all over it. You quickly learned to sit with your hand over your coffee or your drink.
I've owned a couple of night clubs, back before the anti-smoking fetish. From nothing but courtesy, I instituted non-smoking areas; it was easy. They were to the upwind side of the air movement. An exhaust fan provided "fresh" air, if city air can be called fresh.
Yes, there are many problems as we try more and more to make life nice for everybody. At some point, however, we begin to ignore the personal responsibility of those who are so unfortunate to have these various handicaps.
You think it doesn't jangle my nervous system to meet some beauteous sweet young thing, and her sweet-smellum gives me a case of the choke-up? Or to know a bunch of folks who gripe about my cigarettes, but are happy to roll a joint? And talking about odors which give you a case of the gripes, try being stuck with somebody who bathes at least once a month...
, Art