New York smoking ban extended to parks and coastlines (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Some of the toughest anti-smoking measures to be adopted in a major city have been approved by councillors in New York.

The measures are set to extend a smoking ban to municipal parks, beaches and even Times Square.

The ban will take effect three months after it is signed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

It will make it an offence to light up in any of the city's 1,700 parks and along 14 miles (23km) of coastline.

"This summer, New Yorkers who go to our parks and beaches for some fresh air and fun will be able to breathe even cleaner air and sit on a beach not littered with cigarette butts," Mr Bloomberg said after the 36-12 vote.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12352935

[HuckleB]

1. Hmm.

I'm all for public health measures (and, sure, I'd rather not sit on a bench next to someone who's smoking, or walk behind a foursome toking up in Times Square --which has happened to me-- but...), but is there evidence to support this as a measure that would actually improve public health?

:shrug:

[Newest Reality]

2. Enjoy your soon-to-be

pristine air to breathe when those nasty smokers stop polluting it, New Yorkers. I didn't realize that cigarettes were your only source of deadly pollution. I guess that implies that all of your polluting companies are so regulated now that they are using hermetically-sealed domes and completely scrubbing the toxic waste out.

I am sure you are all relieved that one of your most pressing problems is being solved for you by Bloomberg. Government works and Utopia awaits you. Plus, you might make some good bucks from the fines, ey?

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Excelent proetection for the right to not smoke. n/t

[Khan Descend]

6. This has nothing to do with public health, it's just another example of authoritarian

assholes to limit the activities of 'undesirable' people. If they were serious, they'd outlaw internal combustion engines. Bah.

[Ozymanithrax]

7. Wrong... I have no problem with people who smoke...

but a big problem with authoritarian assholes who make me smoke their damned cigarettes. A smoker's freedom to commit slow suicide does not trump a non smoker's freedom to breath air untainted by cigarette smoke.

Comparing cigarettes to internal combustion automobiles is silly. And, over the last 40 years, a lot of work has gone in to make those automobiles less polluting, and over the next 20, they will become much less polluting.

A cigarette is a personal addiction that smokers have no right to force on others.

[Khan Descend]

8. Are you seriously attempting to claim that an automobile burning gasoline

doesn't produce as much pollution as a thousand people smoking tobacco? I guess our scientific education has deteriorated way more than even I imagined.

on edit: by the way, I smoked for 45 years...when I quit 4 years ago, I determined to never become a Nazi about it. So far I've resisted any temptation to be a judgmental asshole.

[Ozymanithrax]

9. Comparing the technological mode of transportation to a

choice made by some to smoke a addictive unhealthy substance for pleasure is a ridiculous comparison that lacks any merit or sense.

I have no problem with people who want to lick a frog's butt, ingest mushrooms, or inject heroin, or even chew tobaco (as long as they swollow) to get high. I am not forced to share their addiction. A smoker forces everyone to share that addiction. Those of us who choose not to smoke have a right not to smoke. So smokers can pursue their habit in the privacy of their own homes, not in public spaces.

[Khan Descend]

13. You probably have no idea how many times I've heard the same sort of comment, with "gay" substituted

for "smoker".

[JustAnotherGen]

4. Good news for the Jersey Shore!

Now we're going to have even more bennies at the Jersey Shore! :rofl: And who could blame them! :-) And as a resident of this state - I'm more than happy to see the smokers come here and spend their money. Most smokers on the Jersey beaches I see collect their butts in an empty can/cup and toss them on their way out.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Seems a little extreme to me...

I don't smoke, don't like to be around cigarette smoke, and am all in favour of banning smoking in public buildings; but I don't see that passive smoking is likely to be a big problem in the open air, especially in places that don't tend to have closely-packed crowds.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LeftishBrit]

11. Rubbish

Not every case of lung cancer is caused by smoking, but smoking does increase the risk very considerably.

Also, have you ANY idea what sort of source you're linking to? It's not just pro-smoker-rights; it is hard-right anti-public-healthcare teabagger-mentality. Here are just a few excerpts:


The Healthcare Law Is Tyranny!
As the health fascist filth gloat, and their corrupt puppet of a president signs their precious bill to turn us into serfs - think of all the decades of lies and defamations and abuse they've subjected us to. Oh, but it was all worth it, because our self-appointed saviors have brought health care to America! For the very first time, we have Civilization, and everything Goodness and Light, all because of these Special Ones! Glory hallejuja! Let's all flop on our bellies and worship the Enlightened Ones! May they be obliterated from the earth.
The Healthcare Reform Railroad
It is no more necessary for the government to force people to have private health insurance to provide health care, than it is necessary to put them in concentration camps to provide shelter. It proves the primary GOAL of the individual mandate is to VIOLATE THE CONSTITUTION - to jam a tyranny founded on Nazi pseudo-science down our throats.
This is an act of war against the American people, and deserves to be answered with acts of war.


And:


WE HATE HARVARD!
Obama and his old friends from ACORN would have been nothing without Harvard political connections, and Obama is only a puppet for Harvard health policy. It was Harvard elitists who devised the corrupt pseudo-science of lifestyle questionnaires in the first place, to create the pretext for tyrannizing over the details of peoples' lives. Harvard prestige and influence enabled their decades-long mass media brainwashing campaign, to condition the people to believe in and submit to it. And, Harvard economists were the engineers of "his" healthcare reform plan. With Obama for their front man, the slimy elites can fall back on their standard ploy of smearing anybody who opposes them as "racist," when they're really opposing the crypto-Puritan Elders of Harvard, who try to disguise their abusive and oppressive religion as "science." Their RINO allies recruited their most ignorant and gullible followers to be strawman opponents for them to bash, and drown out real opposition.


Note again: the site states that:

'This is an act of war against the American people, and deserves to be answered with acts of war.'

In other words, it could at least be interpreted as supporting RW domestic terrorism.

A nice site to link to on a progressive board, I'm sure, especially such a short time after an anti-government lunatic killed six people including a child, and critically injured a member of Congress!

[CarolT]

12. Anti-Smokers Commit Scientific Fraud

Anti-smokers use studies based on lifestyle questionnaires that ignore the role of infection in order to falsely blame tobacco. Infections are the leading cause of cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses, and those studies are cynically designed to exploit the fact that the less privileged are more likely to have been exposed to those infections. This gives the elite a pretext to persecute people under the false colors of "science." This pseudo-science of lifestyle questionnaires was invented in Nazi Germany. And while the Nazis could hide behind the excuse of ignorance, the anti-smokers CANNOT!

Just Google "HPV Causes Lung Cancer," because they censor links to the scientific studies that prove it.