> How did you manage to achieve *that*? Recycling household waste is simply
a
> matter of self-discipline, but not-smoking indoors (or outdoors...) is a
> matter of social behaviour -- a behaviour that, very sadly, most smokers
> over here never seem to have heard of.
I tried to find some articles on the web, but couldn't seem to find anything
relevant - so I'll have to depend on my memory - which seems to be getting
less reliable as I get older... :-)
As best as I can remember, it was a combination of government regulation and
social pressure that did it. The government first banned smoking in
offices, stores, etc. some time in the late 80's or perhaps the early
nineties. Smokers grumbled, but not much, and eventually got used to having
to go outside for a cigarette - even in our winter, which is similar in
climate to yours, Jeroen. Eventually non-smokers got tired of having
smoking happen in restaurants and bars, so city governments started passing
antismoking bylaws. Of course, the patchwork of regulations got restaurant
and bar owners upset as those who were in a municipality with a non-smoking
bylaw lost business to their competitors on the other side of a city
border - who were in a municipality withouth a no-smoking bylaw. Most
complied with the regulations, but some openly defied them.
Then the Workers' Compensation Board got into the act. The WCB is a
provincial body that was created to pay disability benefits to workers who
were injured on the job. In return, workers lost the right to sue an
employer if that happened. The WCB also, as a consequence, began handling
the rehabilitation of injured workers and became the main occupational
health and safety agency in the province. As a part of that mandate, the
WCB decided that the proven hazards of second hand smoke to workers was a
preventable hazard and banned smoking in any public place where there were
employees. This was challenged, but so far is standing up.
That was the legal process - there was a social process happening at the
same time. As the regulations got to be more widespread, it slowly became
socially unacceptable to smoke in public. When I started as a bicycle
courier in downtown Vancouver in 1986, people thought nothing of lighting up
a smoke in an office building's elevator - something that I truly hated.
Now, smokers don't even ask if it's OK to smoke indoors - they automatically
go outside. The only places that indoor smoking occurs in this area are in
a few bars and restaurants that aren't enforcing the WCB ban - and they will
either be fined or told to enforce it or both.
One of the reasons the social change took place is the social atmosphere -
B.C. provincial residents are more liberal in their attitudes and lead
healthier lifestyles than in the rest of Canada. They also had one of the
lowest (if not the lowest) percentage of smokers in the general population.
The climate helps too - even away from the coastal temparate rainforest, the
climate in most of the populated areas of B.C. is usually milder than in the
rest of Canada. Even in winter, it's usually mild enough in the daytime
that it's possible to shiver in your shirt without grabbing your coat for
the five to seven minutes required to have a uick smoke. Try that in
Alberta and that would be the last time you did it!
A smoker who quit about twenty years ago,
Marc
