U.S. anti-smoking battle moves outdoors with more bans

Here in Tokyo, as soon as I walk out the door I'm accosted by smokers walking down the little streets feeding their Habit. Try walking across a bridge without getting gassed. As for parks, they are nothing more than drug parks for gaggles of cancer cloud exhaling addicts. Really sad! Much less the incessant smoking indoors in restaurants and bars. WHY do smokers have the right to inflict their drug habits (and dangerous secondhand smoking) on ANY of us? Smoking stinks. Smokers are addicts concerned only with themselves and not the others nearby in this crowded country. So there.

Damn smokers... Keep your nasty habit to yourself and stop smoking on the streets and in restaurants. You wanna spread lung cancer so bad why don't you all lock yourselves in a room and hotbox your lives away.

SimondB, the difference is that you cannot catch 'second hand obesity' by being near an obese person. They are only killing themselves instead of themselves and everyone around them.

That doesn’t mean it’s causing chronic illness, though.

Yeah, right!!

As a non-smoker, I don't like the stench, so I avoid establishments that allow smoking indoors. The worst is smelling the smoke while eating or drinking. Even outdoors I avoid active smokers.

I do, however, think smokers have the right to smoke in private. The smoke itself spreads indiscriminately, so the onus is on smokers to not invade non-smokers' air. It's as rude to impose the smoke on others as to flatulate in someone's face. It's a matter of manners.

It's not only about the health effects, but also the large amount of litter that smokers in the U.S. make. Most smokers in the U.S. will just toss their cigarette butts on the ground wherever they are. The filter material is not biodegradable and can take years to break down. At a beach clean up at Waikiki earlier this year, over 10,000 cigarette butts were picked up during the 2 hour clean up.

The onus is on smokers not to invade non-smokers air ! EXACTLY RIGHT !

“If you can smell it, it’s obviously there,” said James Repace, a scientist-consultant who’s done some of the outdoor studies."

Yeah, but outdoors, tobacco smoke basically just dissipates into the atmosphere. It doesn't reach concentrated levels like it does, say, in a RESTAURANT. If smokers would just exercise a little common sense and not smoke on crowded sidewalks or at tables on restaurant patios where the smoke drifts right into the faces of people nearby, there should be no problem with smoking outdoors.

Serrano, I know you are trying to strike a compromising tone but as you know when two people light up they decide no one else matters. I think most individual smokers are more reluctant but more than that and they must feel smug or otherwise believe they have the right to stink up the air.

Ever wonder how an air horn in a crowded restaurant would be welcomed by the idiot polluting the air at the next table? Or just start playing your cellphone loudly? There's a 'right' to that, surely?

Soon: Smoking has been banned in all U.S. States. The importation, sale, or distribution of tobacco products is prohibited. I can see it now. Seriously, I'm a non-smoker and never smoked in my life. I don't see a problem with someone smoking outdoors as long as they are not with their children. If I see someone smoking outdoors, I can just walk (or run) around them, however I'm very glad to see smoking having been banned indoors.

The President has reportedly quit smoking.

i must be in a talkative mood. Since it's a witch hunt it leads to underground. Over here (which is europe) i have seen more often wherever not just in smallville here leading to some kind of prohibition like (albeit far more innocent) activity where any kind of public establishment would have valued customers who stay late and frequent the place smoke anyway behind closed doors. Its like a whole new world opens up when the curtains close. Same sh-t, different law, thats how it always goes with this kind of bans. Next thing is cigarettes become an actual maffia moneygainer as prices continue to rise because of govt taxes it will become a product which is worth getting your hands on in large quantities from a black market businessman point of view. that's how it always goes, with any kind of these bans ... in my opinion

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/obamacare-smokers-penalty-glitch_n_3568084.html

It is good Obama quit smoking because with ObamaCare his premiums could go up 50% (max).

Premiums for a standard "silver" insurance plan would be about $9,000 a year for a 64-year-old non-smoker, according to the online Kaiser Health Reform Subsidy Calculator. That's before any tax credits, available on a sliding scale based on income.

For a smoker of the same age, the full 50 percent penalty would add more than $4,500 to the cost of the policy, bringing it to nearly $13,600. And new tax credits available to help pay premiums cannot be used to offset the penalty.

I don't mind if you smoke near me but do not throw the smoke on top of my food, but then , I burp loudly and fart from days deep, and they look at like I am being rude to them! to each its own!

Does this mean that Obama can't smoke at the White House anymore? -Or are these laws only for everyone else?

I Smoke- I get stopped - I'm Homeless w/No I.D. & No Adress-They Let it Ride & Thats All She Wrote! Nothing like the Freedom Of a Hot Coffee & Stogy in the Morning or Hot Taco & a smoke afterward !

aralia - you can catch "second hand obesity" if you have such a person sit next to you on a airplane. Also they account for a large amount of a nations health costs so they do affect others directly. That said, a little surprised to get a rash of thumbs down. Guess I touched a raw nerve with "big boned" people. Not all, but many smokers seem to be somewhat slimmer than average. I think that's because smoking suppresses hunger.

After the do-gooders have done with the smokers they might want to turn their attention to the growing number of obese people in the US which must be at least an equal threat to the nations health.

****What happened to Freedom in America? Seems to slowly disappear.