i think this question belongs here if not let me know.
the reason i bring this topic to discussion is because i heard a couple of people discussing it around campus and i must say that i am somewhat curious.
what are the new laws on smoking in restaurants? i have bee nhearing that some restaurants have banned smoking completely as well as others have not even taken it into consideration.
are there any laws that prohibit smoking in restaurants or are there any other reasons behind the banning of smoking in restaurants?
i myself like to endulge in a nice cigar every once in a while, but i am not a chain smoker, infact, i cannot stand to smell cigarette smoke.
please feel free to post any sites that may be helpful to my better understanding of this.
and furthermore just general discussion on how people feel about this.
thank you,
Depends where you live. It’s illegal in all restaurants in California, which is where I live.
Oh, and how do I feel about it? I love it.
I’ll sit in the non-smoking section if there is one. If there isn’t, I’m not likely to eat at the restaurant again, or at the very least suggest to the manager that there should be a non-smoking section. But I think it should be up to the owner of the restaurant whether smoking is allowed and how the sections are partitioned. The customers have a very efficient way of telling the owner when he’s got it wrong.
It is determined by State Law or the law of a lower jurisdiction. As long as the smoke from the smoking section in no way wafts over to my area, and I do not need to pass through it, I have no problem with smoking sections.
Florida has dumb elections. The recent smoking ban was passed as a Constitutional Amendment (as was the Pregnant Pig Protection thing). It prohibits smoking in all indoor workplaces except retail tobacco shops, designated hotel rooms, private homes not used for commercial health care and stand-alone bars, and should be implemented later this year (July 1), after the politicians figure out what the term “stand-alone bar” means.
I’d have thought it meant a bar that was a self-contained unit, i.e. one that wasn’t incoporprated into (and shared breathing space with) a larger facility like a restaurant, hotel or airport.
Are they arguing over stuff like this?
Toronto has banned smoking in all “restaurants” - defined as places that allow people under 19 in. I’m unclear about the rules for “bars” - places that won’t let you in if you’re not 19 - I believe they have to have separately-ventilated rooms for smoking. (There was a great online summary before, but I can’t find it any more.)
It seems to be working pretty well. I was at a concert in a big club which is traditionally smoke-filled; I got a whiff of something rank and it turned out to be a single cigarette. It really struck me then about how we’re normally surrounded with this smell and don’t even notice it. People really seem to respect the law, at least until the party gets really good, then it’s often forgotten.
Anecdotal Results:
I am ambivilant. My hair doesn’t smell at the end of the night, but my friends who smoke are much less fun, as they spend the night in the back room, or have nic fits, or don’t come out at all.
My non-smoking jazz musician friend LOVES it, his lungs are much improved and his hair doesn’t smell at the end of a gig.
Non-smoking waitstaff are happy not to have to breathe the stuff, but smokers drink/tip more so they’re unhappy in that regard.
Teenagers complain that they have nowhere to hang out since they are not allowed in any of the places that let you loiter for hours.
There are always smoking people congregated on the sidewalk outside of bars and restaurants (they used to only be outside of office buildings).
Now they’er thinking of banning smoking completely, i.e. not even in these separately-ventilated rooms that all the bars installed at great expense. So the bar owners are howling … we’ll see how it works out.