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We've had no smoking laws for various sectors in my province and country for some time and there is always an adjustment period for both sides.
Someone pointed out that the idea of banning a legal product in a private business is ridiculous, and while there are many sides to that argument, the following makes sense to me about such laws:
Tobacco is a legal substance.
Tobacco is also a proven lethal substance to smokers (that's their choice/problem) and non-smokers.
One could argue that non-smokers should just stay away from places where smoking is conducted. That stands to reason.
On the other hand, much in the way we regulate safety in businesses (fire safety, earthquake safety, protection from dangerous materials), disallowing smoking in places of business (which are a private type of public place) is no different than not allowing cancer causing materials to be used in dangerous ways (eg. asbestos in ducts etc.).
The one funny (kind of) side effect we have experienced when smoking was banned from government workplaces was that smokers would congregate at the front of the building to conduct their smoking creating a gauntlet covered in an unbelievable thick cloud of smoke which all the (non-smokers) had to go through to get in and out of the building.
In some ways, this was worse than some distributed smoke here and there.
Who would have figured?
-Dino
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