Streets As Smoke Free Zones?
Back on the train heading north from London in a homeward direction - a relief. London doesn't get any quieter.
When I was in the USA a few years I did a radio interview and when the DJ talked about streets in San Francisco where they'd banned smoking - not inside shops, restaurants etc located on a particular street, but on the street itself, I laughed at how daft it was. Having just visited London for the first time since the smoking ban was introduced in pubs, restaurants and so on I now have to say I Totally get it. Walking along the street you are surrounded by smokers, either clustered around doorways or getting in a quick fag on their walk between wherever. I used to be a smoker, and for a long while after I stopped smoking didn't bother me but it's beginning to now. It won't be long before we band smoking on the street in Britain.
1 comment:
I also used to be a smoker. Even when I smoked, I wondered how the no-smoking section didn't get the smoking section's smoke on an airplane.
Any activity that is potentially harmful to others should be regulated. I'm not sure how dangerous second-hand smoke outdoors is. It is very dangerous indoors.
I guess the tendency is to move toward making smoking so hard to do anywhere but at home that people just say 'the heck with it' and quit. That's not necessarily a bad thing.
It does bother that small libertarian voice inside me, though.
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