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Smoking bans

Ireland was the first country to implement a true smoking ban. Not very many states have a ban, but Ohio is one of them. Unfortunately, the legislation is poorly worded, so there will probably be lawsuits. Like if a cross country trucker is driving through Ohio, is it illegal for him to smoke in his cab. Huge parts of Canada are smoke free (although that's sort of to be expected since it is much more socialistic than the U.S.), New Zealand has a full country ban and most of Australia.

I heard two guys on a morning drive/talk radio show discussing this as a loss of freedom. Saying only the restaurant owner should decide, and then determine if he needed smoke-free sections. That view totally ignores the needs of the wait staff, kitchen and janitorial staff, the band and musicians. And as a non-smoker, I could never get away from it even in the non-smoking section of restaurants. I can remember when clerks in stores smoked at the cash register, when librarians smoked in their offices and at public desks, and people smoked inside our church in the classrooms and fellowship hall. It wasn't pleasant. Everyone stunk smelled bad.

Clean air is good for the tax payer (lower health costs which we hope will offset the decrease in tobacco taxes), good for the worker, and good for the brain. So on this issue, I definitely side with the liberals, who are the folks against personal freedom, because the freedom of others matters too. If you have a partial ban now in your city, state or country, eventually it will be total. There's absolutely nothing positive about poisoning yourself and the air around you. Get over it, and get on with living.