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 Message 34411 of 39187 in General Discussion
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Subject: Re: Smoking Bans
From: Dan the Melon Man
Posted: Sat Sep 29. 2007, 13:00 UTC
Followup to: "Re: Smoking Bans"  by apetail  (Sat Sep 29. 2007, 12:28 UTC)
> However 
> many other type of cancers or elderly diseases are the result of a 
> bad habits as well. Some parts of the food industries might also be 
> blamed damaging public health (e.g. law suits against fast food 
> chains). Many other examples can be found in which actions by people 
> or organisations are damaging public health and not only by damaging 
> their own health but also the health of others. There are no bans 
> however. 

Yep, and these are other battles that are being fought.
Bills are also being pushed/passed about restrictions on carbon emissions, 
dioxens, carcinogens (now that we know better), about restricting fat content 
in fast foods, etc etc. Educating the general public about the risks are still 
not enough, and laws have to fill the gap where trusting every indivudual and 
every company to do the right thing is just not enough.

> Why don't we ban cars that can drive faster than say a 
> few miles above the maximum driving speed on highways?

We do punish drivers that do so. By law. Because there is the difference 
between having the potential ability to do something society judges as 
harmful and actually doing it.

It's not (yet) illegal to have a pack of smokes in your pocket (unless maybe 
in Singapore) but it is (now) illegal to light up in many enclosed 
public/semi-public spaces.
Just like the "smoker" vs "person who is smoking" distinction is important, 
there is a difference between a potential smoker (or speeder) and actual 
illegal smoker (or speeder) depending on where they chose to do it.

> Smoking has 
> the stigma and it's industry has lost power. For alcohol and cars 
> this is not (yet) the case.

Yep. I agree. Is this an argument against the appropriateness of bringing 
such restrictions in? If car safety records hadn't increased in proportion to 
their speed, I think there would indeed be actions against fast cars. If there 
was ever good studies that proved that a glass of wine took a week off your 
life (instead of the other way around) then the anti-alcohol movement would be 
stronger.
But nobody is in the tobacco corner. So they are losing their grip on the 
populace. And if laws are put in place that follow that trend (theoretically 
to protect the disenfranchised) ... it seems pretty right.

... and now I'm going off downtown to have a drink and a smoke. ... but not 
drive ;-)

.dan.


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