Deep breath, then pass smoking ban

Jason,(Sorry about your dad) Those restaurants are not encouraging smoking.They are merely allowing it,just as they do for a whole host of other supposedly "harmful" activities which may supposedly "kill".Just going there contributes to very many deaths.So called tobacco control is the main entity that is currently causing smoking rates to be higher.(among other things) Going by your comments,I suppose that you should be against them.Playing the child card is useless.You'd have to put the kid in a bubble to protect him/her.Unfortunately this would harm the child.They need to be exposed to harmful things in order for their immune systems to develop.Don't give them antibiotics though,its supposed to be a "major" cause of asthma.Exposure to shs/ets lowers their risk of this.

If the ban does not pass, a restaurant should not be allowed to have a "non-smoking" section. A place should be required to have a large sign saying whether or not smoking is or is not allowed. There is a lot of puffery in allowing people to make their own choices, but without adequate information people cannot make good choices. Maybe smoking or non smoking should be listed in ads and coupons.

Forgive me for being so logical and also having some hope that perhaps humans will eventually use their heads for something other than a place to put their baseball caps on backwards, but anytime I see people trying to cause themselves and others harm I feel compelled to speak out. There are several restaurants that I have enjoyed in the past but cannot patronize now - including the Village Inn on Independence Blvd - because they encourage smoking and I will not subject a young child to any more hazards than I have to. My father was a chain smoker and it killed him, and the secondary smoke effects will probably put me in the dirt before my time. My question to you is: why are you compelled to defend drug addicts and their desire to kill themselves and others around them?

Let's pretend that the restaurants that allow smoking smelled like feces. Would you folks still want to eat there? No? Of course not, who would want to eat there? Don't strain your brains too much, but try to pretend the smokey restaurant smells stinky, and don't eat there. I know, I'm a genius!

Here we go again Governor Timothy M. Kaine is talking out of both sides of his face. First he wants to impose what I would call a penalty tax on smokers, an increase of 30 cents per pack to increase revenue for the state. OK I can deal with that, as a smoker I might not like the idea but can deal with it. But then within a week’s time our great Governor comes out and wants to ban smoking in public places. If you have read the house bill 1704 it will no be passed because some idiot put in the following article, “"Workplace" Every vehicle that constitutes a workplace under this article shall have at least one conspicuous sign, visible from the exterior of the vehicle, clearly stating that smoking is prohibited “” once make a private company put up notices’ on their personal business vehicles because a business doesn’t want more regulations imposed on them. And let’s not forget that it is election year again and the lobbyist at knocking at the door with their check books open. Go figure, that's politics.

This is a compelling and polemical issue that clearly tests the ability of our state government to ‘do the right thing’. I am a 40-year-old male ex-smoker. I feel compelled to communicate my views. The smokers are clearly on the wrong side of this issue for a variety of reasons.

There are few things more annoying than some inconsiderate smoker lighting up at the next table. When dining out, my family must breathe second hand cigarette smoke that quickly cascades from the ‘smoking section’. I do not contest that people have a right to smoke, however that right ends where it begins to impact my family’s health and enjoyment. I don’t mind people smoking as long as they don’t exhale. A smoker’s right to smoke should not come at my expense.

Speaking of expenses, according to the Center for Smoking Cessation (Virginia Facts, 7-1-2005), there are 22.1% of our population that are smokers. There are more than 200,000 Medicaid Smokers in Virginia. The Virginia taxpayer bill for Smoking Attributable Direct Medical Expenses is a whopping $1,629 million. Meantime the tax on a pack of cigarettes is only 30 cents (Virginia ranks 45 in the United States), wel

I guess part of the problem is that I believe that people are going to do what they want no matter what the law says. If you have been to college you probably know that there was never a shortage of marijuana around, and yes, I believe it should be legalized. That means that one should be able to smoke it in a restaurant which allows it. I also believe that a ten year old should not drink alcohol, but what type of parent allows a kid to sit at a bar and drink? That is a ridiculous argument. Ask any sixteen year old kid, and they'll tell you it's really not that hard to get beer if they want it bad enough. I just don't understand why we, as Americans, are so quick to give up rights... NOT SMOKER'S RIGHTS, but the rights of private establishments. We won't outlaw strip clubs, but we'll require nipple coverage. We won't outlaw alcohol, but marijuana is evil. We are inconsistent at best and idiotic at worst. Jason, you still have not answered this question. Why do you want to eat at a restaurant which allows smoking if you hate it so much?

I don't dispute that a restaurant is a private business, but surely you see the distinction between a private business open to the public and the type of privacy one enjoys in their residence. Smoking is banned in a host of private businesses already in Virginia, yet you are free to allow smoking in your home. Smoking is banned in restaurants in numerous states all across the USA, and hopefully Virginia will be in that group soon. There is ZERO RELATIONSHIP between the power and control of the Supreme Court and the freedom of states to ban smoking in restaurants, where it is a nuisance and danger to both the employees and the customers.

How short-sighted; can you walk into a restaurant and smoke marijuana? No? Why not? By your standards, anyone should be able to. Can a ten-year old person buy alcohol? No? Why not? By your standards they should. I guess we should just de-regulate everything and let everybody do whatever they want, where ever they want at anytime no matter what harm may befall anybody. Until the human gene develops a strong common sense organ for every single person born, we will need rules, regulations and laws to govern ther behavior of those who either have no cognizent reasoning ability, or are too addled by mind-altering substances to be trusted for reasoning judgement.

These are private businesses.The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a private business does not become public simply because the public is invited in.

I see Dr. Tabor is a dentist. I'm 55. When I was a child, my family dentist smoked while he treated me and other patients. I also remember movie theaters with "smoling sections". I remember airplanes with "smoking aisles". I remember when people were allowed to smoke in shopping malls. I remember working in offices where smoking was accepted. These were all private property. No one smokes in any of these places now. The private property at issue is one's nose and lungs. Restaurants are properly regulated in numerous ways for the health and safety of customers and employees. There should be no freedom to inflict the odor and danger of tobacco smoke on anyone else in a public place, and that includes restaurants. Dr. Tabor misses the point.

License a different kind of establishment that is not required to serve food to sell beer, wine and spirits and allow smoking if the establishment meets ventilation codes. A great opportunity to tax something else.
Ban smoking in restaurants but, you cannot dismiss Dr. Tabors point.
Let's look for some kind of workable compromise.

Restaurants and bars are not "private". They are open to the public. The vast majority of the public prefers to dine without being subjected to smelly tobacco smoke and rude smokers. There are a host of rules which restaurants and bars already must follow because they are open to the public. Anyone who wants to smoke and eat and drink is free to do so....in the privacy of their own home...where their smoke impacts only them.

How do you argue your point with someone who has never smoked and thinks it's a disgusting habit? I am not an addict, I have two young kids, I refuse to eat in smokey places, I take my health very seriously, and I do not support the smoking ban. I understand all of the statistics regarding second, third, fourth, and any other "-hand" smoke. If smokers have a right to smoke in their cars and homes, why don't restaurant owners have a right to allow it in THEIR PRIVATE establishments? Are we now down to telling Jason what he can and can't allow in his private residence too? Just put these places out of business by not eating or drinking there. If all of your statistics are legitimate, they will fail, right? I suspect you are scared that they won't fail, so you'll have to do it another way. Honestly, I am quite fearful of agreeing with people who don't know how to stay out of places which allow smoking. You are the people who, when asked "Just because Johnny jumps off a bridge, does it mean that you should?", said YES!

Not the right of people to smoke, but the right of a property owner to make his own decisions regarding what he will allow in his own place of business.

It also costs the public the opportunity to function as adults and make their own choice about whether to patronize an restaurant that allows smoking( I don't). Just one more step to making us all dependent little children of the Nanny State.

But the Pilot is at least consistent in its opposition to personal Liberty and the responsibilities that go with it.

Please get over it. Going to journalism school does not make you my Mommy and Dr. Northam, going to Medical School does not make you my Daddy.

Tell that to all the bar and restaurant workers that have lost their jobs in Delaware and Maryland over the bans and who now can not find other work because of the economy.

The preponderance of the evidence finds that there is not a statistical risk from secondhand smoke.(WHO,AMA,ACS etc.) OSHA finds that secondhand smoke falls well within safe limits.Air quality testing in such workplaces conducted by the American Cancer Society shows typical secondhand smoke concentrations up to 25,000 times safer even than those already liberal OSHA standards.Testing by the prestigious Oak Ridge National Laboratory confirms that results of air quality testing of secondhand smoke in bars and restaurants was considerably below limits established by OSHA.

I cannot believe this is the highlight of our most pressing problems. The Pilot's obvious agenda on this subject is not surprising. What is surprising is that in an environment where there are so many serious, disaster making problems in our Commonwealth, this "smoking ban" issue is the only political story the Pilot has any interest in perusing. It is truly sad. Our "watch dog" press is a shallow, irrelevant, lap dog for narrow partisan interest.

That said, I sure hope our Assembly members spend no more than 10 minutes on a straight up or down vote. Yea or Nay and get this over with without spending days and days of taxpayer money that no longer exist.

We have serious problems that need immediate attention.

...but I love freedom. When I sit in a restaurant I can smell smoke so ban smoking in restaurants? When I sit in my car with the windows down I can smell smoke from another car so ban smoking in cars? When I walk down the boardwalk I can smell smoke so ban smoking at the boardwalk?

If you're going to take away individual freedom and responsibility, why not go all the way and ban smoking period? Seems to me that anything less is hypocritical.

Submitted by jasonwebb1969 on Mon, 01/12/2009 at 7:10 am.
Hold on to your hats, fellow comment-writers, the drug addicts (i.e. smokers) will no doubt begin their usual onslaught of "smoking is my right"
Jason hate to tell you this but the smokers DO HAVE RIGHTS TO, they have the right to be protected from Good doers like yourself who think they have the right to tell others how to live their lives. What next will people like you be going after drinkers? maybe overweight people you know those who are eating theirselves to a heart attack and other health problems? what will you do for them outlaw buffets or deny them health care like you try and do the smokers? everyone has the right to choose and until CONGRESS passes a law making smoking on the level as illegal drugs then smokers have a right to eat out and go to bars just like you do and you have the right not to patronize places that allow smoking. But PLEASE STOP THE WHINNING ABOUT smoking. I am an ex-smoker but I believe SMOKERS have rights to.