Public Smoking

[RyanB]

...should be illegal.

I can't believe that people still smoke these days. Comprehensive smoking bans have been introduced to prohibit smoking in all public places like restaurants, bars, clubs, workplaces etc., even though some of these may not apply in all situations (ie, casinos).

Why are designated smoking areas out in public not a thing like they are in places like an airport? My health is important to me. I try to eat properly, exercise, get enough sleep - the whole nine, so why does someone else have the right to pollute my lungs and give me cancer? It's hard to even go out for a run without turning the block and running into a gaggle of smokers and being forced to breathe that crap in. Smoke wherever you want, but not around me!

Rant over.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

https://news.stanford.edu/news/2007/may9/smoking-050907.html

Outdoor smoke is harmful, people die from second hand smoke. There it is. And yes stay away from them I understand and I do, don't worry.

Not quite what that article, which was from 2007, claimed. It said that people who are downstream from smokers are exposed to harmful chemicals.

What would be more informative here is a study of a population showing that exposure to outdoor smoking causes increased deaths or illness.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

ts. Quite remarkable nonetheless! Thanks for sharing.

That study did not demonstrate deaths or illness is related to exposure to outdoor smoking. Haven’t seen any demonstrating that in this thread yet.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

What difference does it make if you’re outdoors or not? If you’re exposed to it, you’re exposed to it.

As Ted noted, it has to do with the concentrations one is likely exposed to and the length of time. In the outdoors, a given amount of carcinogen is more likely to be diluted by more fresh air than indoors.

Very roughly speaking, the damage done, such as the increased likelihood of creating a cancer, will be proportional to concentration times total time exposed. Some agents will be more carcinogenic than others, thus requiring a lower product of those two factors than other agent to produce the same likelihood of developing cancer.

If the product of those two factors is the same outdoors as it is indoors, then yes, the place doesn’t matter. But being outdoors will usually result in a lower product because of dilution.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

Look smoking is harmful, second hand smoke is harmful

The types of exposures you will receive while passing near a building entrance have not been shown to be significantly harmful.

And does stink though and so this is just a typical problem with the use of common spaces. A lot of building owners do post against smoking within 50’ or so of the entrance now. Really up to them in the case of private owners. Public buildings are a different matter.