[PLUG-TALK] Do NOT extend the workplace smoking law

[Russ Johnson]

Paul Mullen wrote:

>Simply because the public is welcome to voluntarily purchase a meal
>there doesn't change the fact that it's still a privately owned
>establishment. It's not "public" in the (fallacious) sense that every
>individual owns an equal share of it. And can you honestly claim to
>believe that "no person has the right to do something that infringes
>on another" while simultaneously asserting that the restaurant's owner
>should not be free to engage in non-violent consensual commerce with
>anyone he prefers?
>  
>
I never said it was publicly owned.

I said he invites the public, therefor he must follow the health and 
safety laws. This should be one of them.

Based on the fact that there is a whole body of evidence that says 
smoking is dangerous, both for the smoker, and those around the smoker.

The restaurant owner is perfectly free to engage in commerce with anyone 
they please. We're not saying the smokers can't come in.  Just not while 
they are smoking. Again, can't you refrain from smoking for an hour? If 
you can't, don't go on an airplane.

>>I consider someone foisting their smoke upon my person anti-social
>>in the extreme.
>>    
>>
>
>No one's foisting anything upon you. Quite the reverse, in fact.
>You're perfectly free to move on to the nearest non-smoking
>establishment. That apparently doesn't suit you nearly as much as you
>foisting your desire to eat a meal without the irritation of lingering
>cigarette smoke wherever you please, even if that happens to be a an
>private establishment built with someone else's time and money.
>  
>
And why are they not free to move elsewhere, or have the common courtesy 
to not invade other people space with their smoke? Maybe we should just 
make it a law that a smoker must check with every other person in an 
establishment to make sure it's ok before they light up? Then we can be 
sure the smoking isn't annoying anyone.

My eating a meal doesn't detract from their ability to smoke. While 
their smoking definitely detracts from my ability to eat and enjoy a meal.

-- 
Russ Johnson
Dimension 7/Stargate Online
http://www.dimstar.net

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