Showing posts with label Smoking bans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Smoking bans. Show all posts
Monday, December 22, 2008
Smoking Ban Pudding
After receiving a comment to a previous post (Kansas City, Kansas, Smoking Ban) that questioned the effectiveness of bans on tobacco smoking in public places, I consulted a professional with a major university cancer research program. I was told that a recent 'map' on the decrease in number of cancer deaths per 100 cancer diagnoses across the US showed that the number of deaths from cancer were dramatically decreased in those states which have instituted public smoking bans - with the lowest numbers being in those states which have had the bans the longest (i.e., CA, OR). The researcher asserted that those results are pretty good proof for the argument for a ban on public smoking. I would imagine that smoking ban opponents would say that those numbers are just more false propaganda from the anti-smokers. However, as the adage goes, the proof is in the pudding.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Kansas City, Kansas, Smoking Ban
A unique feature of the smoking ban adopted Thursday by the 'Unigov" council is an exemption license. For $250 annually, a business can be exempted from the ban for up to three years until December 31, 2011. Backers of the ban were disappointed by the exemption, because it would leave a business's employees exposed to second-hand smoke (or their own) for 3 more years. I see the exemption license as a positive move. The display of the license will tell non-smokers of the risk before they enter, which will permit them to avoid the polluted atmosphere. Exempt business will undoubtedly be culling non-smokers from their clientele and reducing their market by 75% and paying for the privilege at the same time. Isn't that great, only in America.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Huffy Puffers
The Kansas City, Missouri, voter-approved smoke-free law for restaurants, taverns and tobacco shops took affect at midnight last Friday and its made some nicotine fiends un-happy big-time. Before I go any further, I must disclose that I am a former smoker of more than 30 years. I’ve been nicotine free since 1987.
Let’s compare the advantages of smoking with the disadvantages. First, let’s list the advantages. Smoking has a mildly pleasurable narcotic effect. Smoking is an appetite depressant and helps avoid weight gain. Smoking creates desirable lifestyle routines or little habits like pausing over a steaming cup of coffee or having a beer with friends who are also smokers. As far as I can tell, that’s about it for the pluses. If you know of others, please comment. Now, let’s consider the bad side of the habit. Smoking is expensive- robbing you of hard earned money that could be put to more productive and satisfying uses, not just because of the cost of a pack of cigarettes, but for the higher life insurance premiums and health care costs as well. Smoking creates health problems – causing illnesses such as cancer, heart attacks, bone density loss, and a host of respiratory problems, ultimately reducing the smoker’s life span. Smoking is dirty - staining teeth and fingers, fouling breath odors, and coating glass like the inside of your car windshield. Smoking is dangerous – burning clothes, furniture, and even whole mattresses, houses and the people in them. Smoking is a time-waster – emptying ashtrays, lighting up, extinguishing the weed, and robbing loved ones of precious time in your relationship.
It does not take much more than common sense to see that the disadvantages of smoking outweigh the advantages. It’s too bad these disgruntled smokers don’t see this non-smoking ordinance as a boon to their existence. My wake-up call, the event that prompted me to quit smoking, was the unfortunate, untimely and greatly lamented death of a friend who died of lung cancer, most likely caused by his pack-a-day habit. The no-smoking ordinance should provide many smokers a similar wake-up call without them suffering the grief I felt, which would be a blessing for their spouses, children, friends, co-workers, and anyone else the smokers have affected by spewing second-hand smoke and odors. There is a small minority of smokers whose addiction is so strong, they probably can’t quit despite how hard they think it is to successfully kick the habit. I’m not going to worry about them. I would rather think of all the lives improved and lengthened, rather than dwell on the few who insist that their right to self-destruction is a higher imperative than a better life-style for everyone else.
Let’s compare the advantages of smoking with the disadvantages. First, let’s list the advantages. Smoking has a mildly pleasurable narcotic effect. Smoking is an appetite depressant and helps avoid weight gain. Smoking creates desirable lifestyle routines or little habits like pausing over a steaming cup of coffee or having a beer with friends who are also smokers. As far as I can tell, that’s about it for the pluses. If you know of others, please comment. Now, let’s consider the bad side of the habit. Smoking is expensive- robbing you of hard earned money that could be put to more productive and satisfying uses, not just because of the cost of a pack of cigarettes, but for the higher life insurance premiums and health care costs as well. Smoking creates health problems – causing illnesses such as cancer, heart attacks, bone density loss, and a host of respiratory problems, ultimately reducing the smoker’s life span. Smoking is dirty - staining teeth and fingers, fouling breath odors, and coating glass like the inside of your car windshield. Smoking is dangerous – burning clothes, furniture, and even whole mattresses, houses and the people in them. Smoking is a time-waster – emptying ashtrays, lighting up, extinguishing the weed, and robbing loved ones of precious time in your relationship.
It does not take much more than common sense to see that the disadvantages of smoking outweigh the advantages. It’s too bad these disgruntled smokers don’t see this non-smoking ordinance as a boon to their existence. My wake-up call, the event that prompted me to quit smoking, was the unfortunate, untimely and greatly lamented death of a friend who died of lung cancer, most likely caused by his pack-a-day habit. The no-smoking ordinance should provide many smokers a similar wake-up call without them suffering the grief I felt, which would be a blessing for their spouses, children, friends, co-workers, and anyone else the smokers have affected by spewing second-hand smoke and odors. There is a small minority of smokers whose addiction is so strong, they probably can’t quit despite how hard they think it is to successfully kick the habit. I’m not going to worry about them. I would rather think of all the lives improved and lengthened, rather than dwell on the few who insist that their right to self-destruction is a higher imperative than a better life-style for everyone else.
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