Smoke-Free KC?

[Fountain79]

I just saw this report on Fox 4 that there is a group that wants to enact a smoking ban in the Kansas City area affecting several different communities. They want to ban smoking in eating establishments and businesses if I am not mistaken. I am a non-smoker, I hate the smell of cigarette smoke and don't see the appeal to it, but city-wide ban on smoking? If you don't like a place because of the smoke do not go there!

[wakeme2008]

1. There is something in KC that smells but I do not think they will ban the

State. :) :hide:

[kansasblue]

2. You would keep the free market

would take care of this wouldn't you. Imagine, you own a bar. Business is suckie and so you make some local news and say 'no smoking'. (or is there some law against ruling your whole place a non-smoking zone. Now New York went no smoking. And I know lots of people who say they don't go to clubs because they are so smoky. And in some cities there are clubs that, on their own, don't allow people to smoke and some are a big hit. You'd think there would be more!

[Fountain79]

5. That's fine

Places are allowed to have their own rules for prohibiting smoking. Like I said, I don't smoke, I don't like cigar, cigarettes etc, but it just seems like a big "nanny" law to say, "no smoking allowed whether you want it or not".

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Someone on the KCTV5 board says

they love the ban in Lawrence because now they can take their kids to Tanners. Now is it just me or is a bar not a place kids should hang out anyway?

Ban smoking so you can take your kids to a bar. Maybe we should print up some bumper stickers. ;)

[Fountain79]

4. OMG

That's a good example right there of wanting a citywide smoking ban for the wrong reasons. If a bar or restaurant wants to ban smoking themselves fine, but don't make a @!#$%@#$% law for it.

[scratchtasia]

6. I don't see it happening

I don't see it happening in KC. I must say that on a personal level, I love the smoking ban in Lawrence. I go out to see live music a lot, and it's great not to have to choke on smoke all night and come home smelling like an ashtray. I understand your point about not going somewhere because of the smoke, but if I did that in KC, I'd never get to see a band. I can also view smoking as a public health issue reasonably subject to legislation.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I agree but

check out this argument (I think it makes a lot of sense):

The RW cannot prove homosexual marriage is harmful, but they pushed legislation to forbid it. So they should support a smoking ban as well. We DO have data to prove smoking is harmful.

I got this off of another discussion board. A freeper was lamenting the ban on smoking, saying it was his right as a US citizen. One of the libs there then asked well how can you agree to ban gay marriage if there is no proof homosexuality is harmful.

It's so much fun to catch them being hypocrites. :)

[Fountain79]

9. True

There is definitive data proving that smoking is harmful, second hand smoke is a grayer area of certainty. It is taken as an absolute truth that it harms other people but there are contentions that the arguments are based on bad science.

[Fountain79]

10. Again

Refer to the post I just made.

[graphixtech]

8. Interesting debate

Tolerating the nightclub smoke (and coming home smelling like an ashtray) has been a price I have always been willing to pay to see great live music.

As a former smoker myself, I sincerely sympathize with people wanting/needing to smoke in public. I never thought I would be in the anti-cigarette purist camp (which sometimes slightly smacks of classism).

Until a month ago, personally I would have been inclined to view a complete smoking ban as Draconian. However, my mother has just been diagnosed with lung cancer which has exponentially deepened my dislike of cigarettes.

Just don't go to smokey places? This happens more than I wish, because my husband and best friends (usually) refuse to go into smokey places.

The reality is that secondhand smoke is simply unhealthy, and many Americans are increasingly health conscious.

[Fountain79]

11. Sorry for your mother

Was she a smoker?

Like I have mentioned before, there are arguments to suggest that the fear for second-hand smoke is overblown.

[Fountain79]

12. some food for thought

http://www.forces.org/evidence/files/passmok2.htm

http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20000203-00

[graphixtech]

13. Rebuttal to secondhand smoke opinion

Yes, my mother was a lifetime smoker.
The second-hand smoke factor subtracted an enormous amount of quality time that my both myself and my children could have spent with their grandmother in these final years. Time that can never be replaced. Lung cancer has a very low survival rate, even if caught early which is rare.

I just did a little research of my own on secondhand smoke and was surprised to read some of this startling health information. Hope it helps someone else.

http://www.alacolo.org/airquality.cfm
The quality of the air we breathe, indoors and out, can seriously affect our lung health. Lung tissue is extremely fragile. It's easily damaged by airborne pollutants, such as car exhaust, secondhand smoke, paint fumes, and mold.
(more)


http://www.nsc.org/ehc/indoor/ets.htm
Environmental Tobacco Smoke
What Is It?
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a mixture of particles that are emitted from the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and smoke exhaled by the smoker. Smoke can contain any of more than 4,000 compounds, including carbon monoxide and formaldehyde. More than 40 of the compounds are known to cause cancer in humans or animals, and many of them are strong irritants. ETS is often referred to as “secondhand smoke” and exposure to ETS is often called “passive smoking.”

What Are the Health Effects?
Secondhand smoke has been classified as a Group A carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a rating used only for substances proven to cause cancer in humans. A study conducted in 1992 by the EPA concluded that each year approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmoking adults are attributable to ETS. Exposure to secondhand smoke also causes eye, nose, and throat irritation. It may affect the cardiovascular system and some studies have linked exposure to secondhand smoke with the onset of chest pain. ETS is an even greater health threat to people who already have heart and lung illnesses.
(more)

http://www.alacolo.org/newsroom.cfm?mode=item&news_id=42
Public Smoking Bans May Cut Heart Attacks
Smoke-free laws may be linked with a rapid fall in the number of heart attacks, according to new research available on bmj.com.
Previous studies have shown that people living or working in an environment polluted with secondhand smoke have a 30% increased risk of heart attack.
(more)


http://www.yourlunghealth.org/staying_healthy/health_tips/secondhand_smoke.cfm
Consider these facts that the American Association for Respiratory Care has learned in its search for information about secondhand smoke:

1. As reported in the 1989 "25 Years of Progress" report of the Surgeon General, a 1986 study titled "The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking" concluded that:

2.Involuntary smoking is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers.*
The children of parents who smoke have an increased frequency of respiratory infections and symptoms.
*Separation of smokers and nonsmokers within the same air space reduces--but does not eliminate-- exposure of nonsmokers to environmental tobacco smoke.

3. A San Diego study showed that nonsmokers exhibited a functional change in their airways directly related to the amount of smoke they passively inhaled at work.

4. Children of nonsmoking and smoking parents were studied in research reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Results showed that children with nonsmoking parents demonstrated normal lung function, while those with one smoking parent demonstrated impaired function. The worst lung function test results were found in children from households in which both parents smoked.

5. Likewise, nonsmoking spouses of smokers demonstrated measurable lung function abnormalities.

6. Pregnant women who smoke are at greater risk for low-birthweight infants, fetal problems, infant deformities, and miscarriages.

Cigarette smoke contains dangerous chemicals that are a hazard when inhaled --either directly or indirectly. Carbon monoxide, which is found in smoke, starves your blood of oxygen and increases the work your heart must perform. Nicotine raises your blood pressure and heart rate, and tar, which also builds up in your lung tissue, contains cancer-causing substances. These dangerous chemicals increase your risk of several kinds of cancer, heart disease, heart attack, and chronic respiratory illness and disease.
(more)
http://www.yourlunghealth.org/staying_healthy/health_tips/secondhand_smoke.cfm



http://www.no-smoke.org/
http://www.no-smoke.org/getthefacts.php?dp=d18
Secondhand Smoke
Today most people have heard the statement "secondhand smoke kills." But in society's increasing awareness of the health dangers of tobacco, of the lies manufactured by the tobacco industry, and of an emerging body of law supporting smokefree policies, it is not enough to simply state "secondhand smoke kills" without knowing how secondhand smoke is a health danger, whom it affects, where exposure is the most serious, and what can be done to stop it.

Throughout the years, the science of secondhand smoke has driven the secondhand smoke policy engine from separate smoking and nonsmoking sections to separately ventilated smoking rooms to 100% smokefree environments. We now know that 53,800 people die every year from secondhand smoke exposure. This number is based on the midpoint numbers for heart disease deaths (48,500), lung cancer deaths (3,000), and SIDS deaths (2,300) as calculated in the 1997 California EPA Report on Secondhand Smoke. And children are at significant risk to many acute and chronic diseases as a result of secondhand smoke exposure.

Since the 1986 Surgeon General's Report titled The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking stated that secondhand smoke can cause disease in nonsmokers, hundreds of studies have concluded not only this, but that exposure to secondhand smoke can result in death. Over the past 20 years, scientific research has become even more clear, resulting now in the ability to pinpoint the effects of secondhand smoke not just on particular organs, but on various ethnicities, types of workers, and socioeconomic classifications.

As the body of scientific evidence becomes larger and more precise, it is now possible to prove that smokefree policies not only work to protect nonsmokers from the death and disease caused by exposure to secondhand smoke, but also have an immediate effect on the public's health . On a larger scale, a study has confirmed that restaurants and bars located in smokefree cities have 82% less indoor air pollution than restaurants and bars in cities that do not have smokefree protection. Because of the mountain of evidence from these peer-reviewed, scientific studies, the Centers for Disease Control recently issued a warning for anyone at risk for heart disease to avoid smoke-filled indoor environments completely.



http://www.joechemo.org/cgi-bin/quit.cgi

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. I am a smoker and want to quit

But I question the 'damage' pregnant women supposedly cause to their babies. I smoked through two pregnancies, had very healthy babies and neither one (they are in their 20s now) ever had health problems because I smoked. My aunt had 5 kids and smoked two packs a day through her pregnancies. Her kids were also very healthy. And all of her kids and mine had very normal birth weights.

I know smoking is hurting ME and I know I should quit, but I have always wondered how many of these health problems may be even a bit exaggerated. My personal experience just doesn't reflect the warnings. So I am a skeptic.

[panicbutton02]

15. A Better Solution

Why not raise cigarette taxes instead? We rank at the bottom of the country in cigarette taxes. That way we'd increase revenue AND reduce smoking.

See more here:

http://thepanicbutton.blogspot.com/2005/04/matt-blunt-to-missouri-smoke-em-if-ya.html