Ban Smoking? You Bet!

by: David Johnson
There is something fundamentally different about cigarettes than any other form of substance abuse. This fundamental difference has led to an animosity that isn’t afforded any other form of substance abuse.

I think the best example to compare smoking to, is drinking. Both are legal and both often take place in bars. Yet when the guy next to you has his twelfth shot of the night, you aren’t forced to join in along with him. When the guy next to you lights the last of his pack, you unfortunately have to ingest the smoke. You have to try and wash it out of your coat and hair.

Yet, I’m not sure that this alone would be enough to justify a ban on smoking everywhere. People can choose weather to enter a bar or not, and in that regard it would give people the option of choosing a smoking or a non-smoking bar.

However, there are people who cannot make a choice as to weather to expose themselves to this kind of harmful and involuntary substance abuse: employees. Unlike the patrons of these establishments, employees of bars and restaurants cannot make a choice as to whether they are exposed.

This brings us to a fundamental reason for banning smoking in all interior public places. We cannot, in this day and age, allow an employer to expose a worker to a dangerous substance for any reason. We’ve spent decades trying to improve conditions for all sorts of workers in the United States, how can we allow this to continue.

Just imagine for a minute if this were a factory. Imagine if they wanted to release a cancerous airborne substance into the air of the factory. The public would simply not tolerate putting employees in that kind of risk. We cannot tolerate it with smoking.

I do believe there acceptable circumstances when patrons should be allowed to smoke. And in respect to the rights of smokers, I believe there should be something written into the law that under these circumstances, smoking would be allowed.

The key here is that no one other than the smoking patrons themselves can be exposed to the smoke. I can imagine bars having a smoking section in which employees do not enter where patrons are allowed to smoke in piece. This area would of course need to have very little air intrusion into the non-smoking side, but I’m sure that’s something that could be easily engineered.

I’ve lived in cities where smoking has been banned and almost everyone likes it. Bars are more inviting and employees are happier. Plus, it’s finally given smokers people to be social with as the huddle outside in the cold getting their nicotine fix.

There is something fundamental wrong with the belief that smoking is a right. While smokers may have the legal right to use this substance, they must keep in mind that this is a deadly, cancerous substance that they lack the ability to contain. Every time they light up they are exposing everyone around them to a live threatening danger.

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