Smoking banned in all UK pubs & clubs

[Dudley]

What you need is a smoke-free cigarette...

Link: http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/379/14530_cigarettes.html" target="_blank">Out Now, fag fans!

[Rob Spalding]

I the same as Spurrier, it must be a student thing.

[Funt Solo]

One of the key points used to discourage smoking is the amount it costs the health service (ie society) in looking after smokers.  It also costs a lot to look after the after-effects of alochol (whether it be personal health or resultant violence).  So, there is an equation, in terms of cost.  

(Obviously, there's no such thing as passive drinking - but the only people I've ever heard suggest such a thing are non-smokers trying to dampen down the debate with trite nonsense.)

I know two wrongs don't make a right, but militant anti-smokers should take into account their own particular foibles instead of ensconcing themselves in a thin bubble of righteousness.

"You who are without sin, cast the first stone" and all that jazz.

[Dudley]

(Obviously, there's no such thing as passive drinking - but the only people I've ever heard suggest such a thing are non-smokers trying to dampen down the debate with trite nonsense.)

Drinkers only harm themselves.  If you want to go down the line of legislating for people's own health, then you've got to consider fatty food intake, exercise, propensity to stand next to trees in thunderstorms... it's limitless.

The problem with smoking, especially in confined spaces, is that you hurt other people to satisfy your addiction.  

Your personal freedom to hurt your own person is unaffected by this legislation.  Your unconstrained ability to damage other people and shorten their lives is the only thing that's affected.

[johnnystress]

all true- plus tobbacco companies are in league with satan

not a good thing

cool maybe ,but not good

[Matt Timson]

And we don't want to stink like shit.  Don't forget that the important stuff...

[Bico]

I don't give a toss.  You want to smoke, go ahead - just don't pretend you're somehow  entitled to blow it in other people's faces.
Long overdue, to be honest.  They're re-evaluating the licencing laws to encourage safer drinking practices, so it's not like they're concentrating on smokers as a persecuted minority or something - and they are a minority, too.  It still beggers belief that less people smoke than don't - everywhere you go, the smell is omnipresent.

[House of Usher]

The question of passive drinking, or ill-effects and cost to society from drunkenness, is a big red herring.

For one thing, booze counts as food in my book, because it has calories in it. Cigarettes aren't food.

;-)

For another thing, my drinking, moderate or excessive, doesn't harm anyone else, because I've never, ever got into a fight through drinking. No matter how drunk I might get, my instinct for self-preservation remains strong enough to keep me out of trouble.

As to what my drinking might cost the NHS, I feel it is incumbent upon me to excercise restraint and to minimise the harm I might do to my health through drinking. Who do I think drinks too much? Well, people who drink more than I do, obviously!

If ever I were to seriously impair my own health through drinking, I wouldn't think it was a lack of concern that did it; I'd think it was the result of miscalculation.

[Satanist]

There is the argument that as the highest tax payers in the land smokers actually pay for their own healthcare at least 4 time over. If this doesnt go into the NHS is that my fault.

On the other hand how much tax do overweight people cost the NHS? They also stink, are unsightly and should pay more on public transport. Oh and one fell out a window and landed on my mate so they do cause harm to others. Lets ban them from fast food joints.


;-D yes I'm well aware I'm on a comics forum.

[Quirkafleeg]

One of the main arguments afaik is why should bar staff work in an unsafe enviroments...? The counter argument is 'well they don't have to work there'. To which you can say 'well you could say that about any job with an element of risk - 'you want a mask to strip out that asbestos? well you don't have to do the job' etc etc

[Satanist]

Well barstaff wont all have to worry as some are going to lose their jobs. I don't mean your trendy bars but wee local pubs that rely on the old fellas. I know a woman manageress who doesn't smoke and if all the old duffers sit in the house with a cargo and smoke their pipes and rollies then she's fucked.

[Richmond Clements]

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1978 requires an employer to insure that their employees have a safe, and indeed healty, working environment.
It's just taken the government this long to wake up to the fact that bars and clubs are, in fact, working environments.

Quick quiz: bet you can't guess which course i was on at work recently?

[Dudley]

Was it Cooking With Petrol?  Good course, that.

Anyway, this is courtesy of them luvly folks over at Futurequake...http://www.steveconley.com/pages/smok.jpg">

[WoD]

Small quantities of booze (in the form of beer, wine, etc.) is good for you.  Not the same for a small amount of smoke I suspect.

[Artificial Idiot]

Anything is bad for you in large doses.

The difference with smoking is - Even in small doses it's bad for you.