California - The Nanny State

[cbelt3]

The smoking in public places ban in Ohio has worked quite nicely. I can actually go into a bar now without having to limp for the exits gasping for air. But I never got in the habit of going to bars.

Now that it's the first winter with the ban, smokers are starting to think harder about quitting. It's one thing to run outside for a smoke. It's another thing to put on boots, hat, gloves, coat, etc..

[OWC Jamie]

Now if I could only walk outside on Saturdays when the air quality is low / no wind and not smell dryer sheets.

[freeradical]

[quote spearmint]
Ten year old joke in SF.

A German Businessman is touring the financial district with his hosts and remarks "you have the best dressed and looking prostitutes!"

He of course was referring to the ladies of the office forced outside for a smoke.
Back when I was a smoker, you could smoke just about anywhere you wanted to. There were some exceptions; you couldn't smoke if you were visiting someone in the hospital who had an oxygen tank next to them.

This was of course absurd. Non smokers had to suffer through all of this.

It seems to me that we could easily find a way to accommodate both groups of people - a break room with a smoke eater ventilation system for example.

I know plenty of people who don't smoke in own cars or even their own houses out of respect for others.

The Government is not needed to solve this issue.

[RgrF]

As I came out of the bank today and was dropping into the car I noticed a man and young girl getting into the truck next to me. She was maybe 8-10 years old. Before he hit his seat belt he had a butt in his mouth.

I was tempted to go over and point out (in case he didn't know) that that cig could cost him a hundred bucks but I thought that would be intrusive and there was little in the way of explanation from a stranger that wouldn't seem condescending.

I remember when I was his age (I was a smoker) and had a kid with me, if someone had the termidity to make me look anything but heroic, I'da had a serious problem with that person.

I'm Gramps now and see it different than I did then and hope the a$$hole gets the first of such tickets issued here in California. Some laws are intrusively stupid, this is not one of them.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

[quote Racer X]Or let the child sue the parents when they hit 18. That's fair as well.
That might be tempting. My brother had many ear infections when he was young. We all had more than average because both my parents were heavy smokers. He had to have his eardrums lanced at least twice to relieve pressure from ear infections between 3 and 7 years old. It affected his hearing, which affected his speech. He had to be transfered to another school for a year to have speech therapy.

[Racer X]

I am fairly certain 2nd hand smoke is linked to childhood asthma as well.

[cbelt3]

Racer- could be. but it's also genetic. Mine is very genetic (no smokers in either side of my family for a couple of generations back, not even seegars.). The fact that my wife smokes definitely makes it worse, though. Would I have married her if I had know she smoked ? (She quit while we were dating, and started again a couple of years after we were married).

Maybe not. Then again, she was and is the love of my life. I just want her to live longer. And she's not gonna. So I'll be a widower, and probably bankrupt (Nothing more expensive than dying slowly in the US of A)

[Racer X]

My point is that as caretakers for children, their health, safety and welfare is the aduilts responsibility. The children aren't allowed to, or expected to, make some very serious decisions about their situation and own health and safety. If the parent or guardian puts them at risk, especially a situation with long term, and possibly fatal outcome, then, yeah, they should be held accountable, and liable.

[ho'ard]

[quote Filliam H. Muffman][quote Racer X]Or let the child sue the parents when they hit 18. That's fair as well.
That might be tempting. My brother had many ear infections when he was young. We all had more than average because both my parents were heavy smokers. He had to have his eardrums lanced at least twice to relieve pressure from ear infections between 3 and 7 years old. It affected his hearing, which affected his speech. He had to be transfered to another school for a year to have speech therapy.
Sounds like my childhood, except for the Lancing.