The Nanny state increases: CA town bans smoking in all non detached private residences

[zoid]

@stevenova

why not ban all the unhealthy things in the air, which would involve banning cooking, carpets, dry cleaned clothes, etc. Why are you singling out smokers?

Degree of risk and evidence.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Why do you insist that you need to be able to smoke tobacco? If the important thing is to ingest nicotine, why not just use an electronic cigarette, where you can smoke pure nicotine in whatever concentration you desire, without the tar? You realize those can be smoked indoors, right? Or is it more important to you to feel indignant and outraged?

[DrDeth]

@Jackmannii

There seems to be an illusion (delusion?) that if you don’t see clouds of secondhand smoke in your apartment but only smell it, you have no exposure to the chemicals in secondhand smoke.* Not true.

“People who live in apartment buildings, especially those with children, breathe in tobacco smoke even if no one in their own household smokes, a new study shows.”

“Researchers found that about one third of study participants living in apartment buildings, condominiums and other multi-unit housing reported smelling smoke in their buildings, and about half of those residents reported smelling smoke in their own units. People were only eligible to participate in the study if no members of their household smoked in the home…taken together with another recent study, the findings mean that half of parents whose children are exposed to tobacco smoke don’t know it, Winickoff said. In that earlier study, Winickoff and his colleagues found that nine out of 10 children living in apartments had a chemical called cotinine in their blood. Cotinine is an indicator that a person has breathed in tobacco smoke.”

We have cut down on harmful pollution from car exhaust and factories for public health reasons. So why not limit harmful pollution from smoking, which is far less essential for commerce and employment than autos and factories?

*“Secondhand smoke is dangerous in any amount, and the only way to protect people from that danger is to eliminate indoor smoking.”

Right. Secondhand smoke kills. You have no ‘right” to kill other people, even if you do it while sitting on your couch at home.

[stevenova]

@Snowboarder_Bo

Why do you insist that you need to be able to smoke tobacco? If the important thing is to ingest nicotine, why not just use an electronic cigarette, where you can smoke pure nicotine in whatever concentration you desire, without the tar? You realize those can be smoked indoors, right? Or is it more important to you to feel indignant and outraged?

So why are the banning people from using ecigarrettes then? They won’t let you use those in bars because it looks like you are smoking. THe self righteuous whiners throw fits.

[zoid]

@stevenova

So why are the banning people from using ecigarrettes then? They won’t let you use those in bars because it looks like you are smoking. THe self righteuous whiners throw fits.

Kettle, meet pot. Pot, kettle.

[The_Second_Stone]

I lived down the hall from a very heavy smoker and his neighbors could always smell it, even when he wasn’t there. In California it is now the custom that smokers do so in a manner that not offend those nearby with the smell. Being 50 years old, I can remember many places it was mandatory to be around heavy smoking as recently as the 1970s work environments. I don’t miss it.

[Larry_Borgia]

@stevenova

So why are the banning people from using ecigarrettes then? They won’t let you use those in bars because it looks like you are smoking. THe self righteuous whiners throw fits.

Well, somebody’s throwing a fit, on that much we agree.

I don’t know about tobacco, but have you considered switching to decaf?

[stevenova]

Replace anything done to smokers with gays and yhou people praising this discrimination against somkers would be shouting bigotry and discrimination. It must be nice to have one group you are still allowed to hate and persecute.

[Marley23]

@stevenova

Replace anything done to smokers with gays and yhou people praising this discrimination against somkers would be shouting bigotry and discrimination. It must be nice to have one group you are still allowed to hate and persecute.

And that’s officially enough. Most of your posts today haven’t been arguments, they’ve just been obnoxious rants, so I’m banning your account.

[zoid]

It was fun while it lasted though.

OK, not so much.

[Zeriel]

nvm

[Sailboat]

For the record, I’m perfectly fine with treating any kind of smoking the same. I certainly don’t want to breathe someone’s pot smoke any more than their tobacco smoke. So the hypocrisy charges won’t stick in my case.

[Czarcasm]

@Sailboat

For the record, I’m perfectly fine with treating any kind of smoking the same. I certainly don’t want to breathe someone’s pot smoke any more than their tobacco smoke. So the hypocrisy charges won’t stick in my case.

The difference is, after a while in the pot smoke filled room I just don’t care as much.

[Son_of_a_Rich]

First they came for the smokers…

[Jackmannii]

Then they confiscated the bathtubs, and that stank.

[hajario]

@Alessan

It’s California - only poor people live in apartments there. Let’s see this law pass in New York.

Yeah, like that time we banned smoking in bars and restaurants first. It’ll never happen.

@Alessan

Actually, it’s a form of class warfare. This new ban won’t affect a single member of the California 1%.

This is totally incorrect. Do you really think that we don’t have high end non-detached rentals/condos anywhere in the State? It is certainly much more prevalent in NYC but there are plenty of them here too.

[DrDeth]

@hajario

Yeah, like that time we banned smoking in bars and restaurants first. It’ll never happen.

This is totally incorrect. Do you really think that we don’t have high end non-detached rentals/condos anywhere in the State? It is certainly much more prevalent in NYC but there are plenty of them here too.

Yeah, one penthouse condo sold for $28MM not too long ago.

[zagloba]

@DrDeth

Yeah, one penthouse condo sold for $28MM not too long ago.

That guy can just take his helicopter to his Hamptons mansion when he wants a smoke.

[Rachellelogram]

So, on topic… how are they planning to enforce this, anyway? Unless they put cameras inside people’s homes, is there any way to prove which particular denizen was smoking? I just can’t see how it’s enforceable. Unlike marijuana paraphernalia, it won’t be illegal to possess cigarettes. So all you’d have to do is find a better way to dispose of butts (shred them? put into a smell-proof container?).

[Jragon]

@DrDeth

Right. Secondhand smoke kills. You have no ‘right” to kill other people, even if you do it while sitting on your couch at home.

… Shit. Nobody told me that. Does that mean that “friendly chat” the sheriff was going to have with me about all those corpses isn’t going to be friendly at all?

@Rachellelogram

So, on topic… how are they planning to enforce this, anyway? Unless they put cameras inside people’s homes, is there any way to prove which particular denizen was smoking? I just can’t see how it’s enforceable. Unlike marijuana paraphernalia, it won’t be illegal to possess cigarettes. So all you’d have to do is find a better way to dispose of butts (shred them? put into a smell-proof container?).

I assume it’s one of those laws like noise ordinances where they don’t look into it until someone complains or they accidentally discover it while investigating something else.