Jennifer Rubenzer Plymouth wrote
A smoking ban on private businesses is the equivalent of the government marching into our homes and telling us what we will be eating that night...or to many of our posters chagrin - whom we should be sleeping with.
We're talking about private businesses and personal choice.
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The doors on the bars have to open outward, Jennifer, to allow for quick exit in the event of fire. This is required by law. So are those illuminated exit lights and fire extinguishers. And when your waitress goes to the bathroom she is required to wash her hands before returning to work. When the cook prepares food there are legal processes he has to go through as regards storage and thorough heating. These are not a question of choice--they are matters of public safety.
Smoking in the workplace is also a question of safety for the staff as well as other patrons. Second hand smoke is just a dangerous for the non-smoker as smoking. A long term study in Japan from at least 10 to 15 years ago looked at non-smoking women married to smokers and non-smokers. The women married to smokers had a much greater instance of lung cancer than the women married to non-smokers.
So this is a public health issue and not a question of choice. No one is preventing a smoker from smoking in designated areas or the privacy of their own home. Alcoholic beverages in a glass are not allowed to leave the bar to be consumed on the sidewalk and tobacco consumers are not being allowed to bring the habit inside from the sidewalk.
Steven M Nelson
Willard Hay
http://citizenshipchronicles.blogspot.com/
Get UP! Get OUT! & GET INVOLVED!!!
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