Yahoo! News - Ireland Goes Smoke-Free with Pioneering Ban
Now if Lexington can just be allowed to enforce the one passed last July, I'll be happy. It's never been in effect because it's been under a series of injunctions while its legality is duked out in the courts. Meanwhile, the legislators of the Commonwealth of Kentucky seem to be doing everything they can to prevent that, drat it. See, tobacco here is big business--well, really, a way of life--nevermind that the average tobacco farmer doesn't really do that well anymore. I'm sorry...I've lived on tobacco farms, and I've watched the fields turn bright gold in the fall and yes, I do consider it part of our culture. But I've also lost two people very close to me due to lung cancer and emphysema; I watched them suffer, gasping to breathe. My paternal grandmother died nearly two decades in age before her parents. In the end her cancer reached her spine and the doctors let her use a morphine pump just to dull the pain. My maternal grandfather, the gentlest man I've ever known, had such low blood oxygen after years of being tied to a pump and unable to do his beloved gardening that he'd begun to hallucinate. He tried desperately to get out of the hospital (and nearly made it out the front door of the VA) and was thankfully discharged home only to die a couple of days later. Until late in his illness, he would go out to his car trunk and sneak cigarettes where my grandmother would not find him, so heavy was the addiction.
Both of them started smoking before we 'knew better'. I don't understand why people still take up smoking since we do know the health costs, but it's their choice. A stupid one in my opinion, but one nevertheless. Some would argue that they deserve such awful deaths. I don't agree. But smoking in public is NOT a personal choice. It's a health hazard. For those of us with asthma or who have to work in a smoke-filled environment, second-hand smoke can be a very real problem.
In America, it's become socially unacceptable to smoke around others to some degree. Gone are the days of Emily Post when you were expected to provide cigarettes to your guests. Now, many people--at least in my age group and younger--step out of their own homes to smoke, whether it's because they have kids or roomates and they're being considerate or because they don't want to stink up their home. A lot of people are shocked when they travel to other countries where people chain-smoke in great numbers. One of my friends is travelling to Bosnia this summer, and really, she's braving heavy smoke as much as landmines. I don't know why smoking is so popular in some places; is it that the health concerns aren't as well-known among the populace? Is it seen as chic? Is it the stress? Is it just cheap and easy to smoke? Maybe some of you know and can comment.
But here, it really is on the way out. Most tobacco farmers (at least those who farm full-time) have been looking into alternatives for decades. A lot of families supplement their income with a small tobacco base on their land. But, there are other ways. Towards the end of their lives, my great-grandparents made money not from growing tobacco but by either leasing the base (and letting someone else grow it either on or off their property) or sometimes they were paid not to grow any by the government. I don't think those government subsidies are so easy to come by these days, but there's also quite a bit of money from the tobacco settlements, depending on how states use the funds.
Most people who smoke know that it's bad for them. A lot try to quit. Health and wellness are the new watchwords for 'cool'. Yet there are dating sites out there for smokers who feel 'stigmatised' by people who don't want to date them. There's an attitude of smokers as some sort of oppressed minority, with many absolutely rabid about their rights to smoke where and when they want. We have a rather absurd situation where tobacco companies--caught at practices where minorities and youths were targeted for marketing--are now paying millions of dollars to produce ads that talk about how bad smoking is for you, as if somehow once you turn 18, those reasons should somehow be invalid. It has always boggled my mind that they can run ads in magazines (having been yanked off the TV when I was a kid) that say things like 'cool, refreshing' and then oh, by the way, smoking causes premature death, complications in pregnancy, etc. It's ridiculous.
In the case of Lexington's ban, it was done by the council, not via referendum--if I understand correctly--because the state prevents such votes. Now it's trying to prent local governments from making these sorts of public health decisions. Mind you, if the federal government tried something similar, the state would howl foul, for it's a long-standing tradition that such matters have local jurisdiction.
There was a lof of publicity, too, at the time of the ban's inception that was misleading. A cigar bar downtown was going to have to shut its doors and convert to another form. Patrons came flocking down for one last smoke. I asked a councilmember I know about that one. Apparently the rule was that businesses that made 50% or more of their sales from tobacco sales (like a tobacco shop) were exempt. This one wasn't because the overwhelming majority of its sales were from alcohol; the cigar theme was more of a novelty. Another cigar bar in town, one that did sell a lot of tobacco, was exempt. The council looked at laws such as those in New York City and really tried to come up with something that would be good for public health AND business. And yet, here we are, nearly a year later, and I still come home from Applebee's non-smoking section stinking of the stuff and sniffling, rarely go out to a restaurant, never to bars, curse myself when I forget and get toilet paper from a gas station that's impregnated with smoke, and generally unable to enjoy going out. I'd love to go to O'Neil's across the street for the great pub food and music, but I can't yet. Sigh.
Well, I guess I've ranted for long enough. But that's how I feel about the subject anyway.
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