Jeroen wrote:
>>>>So why are all you non smokers over there still allowing the smokers >>>>to slowly kill you? >>>> >>>Probably because it is an horrendous task to sue each and every >>>single bar owner, restaurant owner, employer etcetera that allows >>>smoking on the premises. And who should we sue to be freed from >>>people smoking outdoors? >>> >>I would think that after the first few successful lawsuits that the >>rest would get the idea. >> > > The problem is that businesses are privately owned, which means that it is > impossible to sue a business for allowing smoking on their premises. What about a non-smoking employee that contracts a smoking related disease? > If an owner does not voluntarily ban smoking on the premises, the only way to make > such places smoke-free is through legislation that makes it illegal to smoke > there. There *are* groups pressuring the government to make such laws, but > there is one annoying thing getting in the way: a rather powerful tobacco > lobby. So far, the only public places where smoking is banned is in > government buildings. How about cigarette taxes going to anti-smoking campaigns? > Unlike other drugs (like alcohol, cocaine etcetera), tobacco seems to be > more or less acceptable in the workplace; it is not even considered a drug. > In several places where I worked, I pointed out to smokers that tobacco > really falls in the same category as those other substances and therefore > should be banned as well. After all, few employers will accept it when there > employees use alcohol or cocaine at work. Did not exactly boost my > popularity, to see the least. Understandable, of course, because by drawing > those parallels you are essentially calling your smoking co-workers drug > addicts... It's not like that here anymore. You know someone is an addict when they huddle outside in the foul weather to get their fix. One of the silliest things I ever saw was a group of smokers huddled beneath a covered verandah in a howling thunderstorm, wind so strong it was blowing the rain sideways, teaming up to try and get their cigarettes lit with a disposable lighter. A lot of people are so ashamed of their habit they hide it from their friends, coworkers, and family. I was that way the last several times I started up. Its a nasty, foul, disgusting, debilitating, addiction and the people that push it on kids are akin to child abusers in my book. -- Doug email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.zo.com/~brighto "Now people stand themselves next to the righteous And they believe the things they say are true They speak in terms of what divides us To justify the violence they do" Jackson Browne, It Is One
