Hey juunkmail96,  I too grew up with parents who smoked....two packs a day each

and my mother was one who kept the house shut tight and you were lucky if you got

to open a window.   I didn't know the effects it had on me until I left home too.

 I have a lung disease because of 21 years of SHS.  Inhalers and medicince

are always going to be a part of my llife. I suffer daily. 

Yet even after my father passed away with COPD, my mother

still smoking away... can't get her to quit...

 my asthma is more genetic caused by smoking. And I think asthma  (and many other genetic lung diseases) are just becoming more common because Most Americans are carrying that genetic trait. Put it this way, Being genetically deaf (from my family history) , I know I can easily have deaf children if I marry other deaf gene carriers (but I have a hearing son).  If I stayed in a deaf community, then all my children, and children's children, will have deaf kids.  Allergies and eczema is also my genetic trait.  Just that I can't handle smoke because of my asthma, that's all. But it isn't caused by smoking... if so, I can't explain why my cousins have it as well.

Tobacco is the only product that when used as directed will kill you.  Why would I spend money to subject myself to a carcinogen?

Remember when you are on your high horse about smoking and how you don't like the smoke when we cannot patronize these places you have to go out of your way to help them out because you told them who they can serve and who they cannot. I am from FLA, after the smoking ban all of the bowling alleys went out of business, the Wreck bar at the river and main street has a blue haired lady and an elderly man eating in a resturant that holds 200 people and 100's smokers are sitting out on the deck. the smoking ban devastated the restaurant/bar businesses. we do not have the luxury to sit on the deck in the winter here.

We are in hard economic times are we in a position to limit the clientele of a business???? I found that 2/3's of the restaurants in this valley are smoke free as a non smoker "just say no" and go to your smoke free restaurant. Don't forget the Feds are promoting smoking to support the SCHIP bill, they will need 22,000.000 more smokers by 2017 to support it and the new taxes in VA are dependant on use so if we are taxed out of smoking you have to foot the bill.

Make sure you support these businesses that cater to smokers because your arrogance is going to put them out of business

Dave Hanson:

 "PC crap?"  Well, I'll not let that bait me and directly address the issue.  To me it is simply a public health issue.  People are free to smoke in private (foolish, but free to do so); but nobody has a fundamental right to exhale foul and dangerous second-hand smoke into my face and my food in a public place.  A restaurant that serves the public is subject to various government laws and regulations for the sake of both constitutional rights and public health/safety: e.g., blacks cannot be banned, the kitchen and bathroom must be sanitary, alcohol cannot be served to minors.  I do not see why smoking cannot be included in the list of prohibitions.  If someone wants to take an exensive and deadly roll of tobacco, light it, and inhale the smoke, they can do it outside (away from the doorway).  It's not about "nanny government," it's about public health.  Smoking/non-smoking sections are a joke; the smoke does not respect the boundaries.  A smoker's rights end when he/she exhales in the presence of an offended nonsmoker.  If all smokers understood that basic principle of courtesy there would be no need for a state ban, but many do not.

No matter how you spin or rationalize your argument, the bottom line is when this product is used as directed, it will kill you - period.

mrgrimm2, I sit here in amazement after reading your posts.  Diesel soot is indeed a carcinogen, and most people are exposed to it for extremely short durations.  If they are exposed to it for long time periods, such as auto mechanics, they must have ventilation equipment in place to remove the soot and fumes to prevent the negative health impacts while they are working within a closed building.  Ever go to an auto shop or bus maintenance facility and you'll see the large fans in place in their shop areas.  For the smoke from fireplaces and BBQ pit smokers, take a look at those too while you're at it.  Heat rises, and smoke is hot, so, smoke rises through their stacks and goes outside to the great volume of air known as our atmosphere where it is dissipated into that much larger volume of air.  However, I will agree that the lady wearing too much perfume is often enough to also set me into a coughing fit about as bad as having smoke blown in my face.  As the kid of a family of smokers and the only non smokers to come from my house growing up, I live with chronic resperatory problems and asthma thanks to my parents refusal to quit smoking or to simply smoke outside.  I was forced to breathe that smoke for almost 19 years because they were too selfish to stand on the porch and smoke, to wait until they stopped the car to fire one up, or to sit in the non-smoking section at Denny's while we ate.  I will forever live with the fact that my parents poisoned my lungs, and I can only hope that I don't develop lung cancer as a result of that exposure.  I am extremely thankful that the smoking ban has passed, and I look forward to going to a restaurant again and not worrying about whether or not I'll be able to breathe while I dine.

It's better late than never to have this life-saving legislation.  The tobacco cartels in Richmond and Winston-Salem are responsible for more blood on their hands than either Hitler or Stalin or Mao or Saddam, or any other mass killer you could name.  The numbers speak for themselves:

Smoking KILLS as many Americans EVERY DAY equal to TWO JUMBO JETS filled with people crashing and burning.  If that calamity were to happen just once from willful intent - and it is willful when it comes to killing individual addicted smokers - this country would be outraged.  The tobacco cartel kills more Americans in a week than Al Qaeda killed on 9/11.  These are facts.  You can argue against opinions; but you can't argue against facts.

Here are the facts:  http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0072.pdf

Every American family has been, or will be, critically harmed by these killers who hide behind "legality," "jobs," "free enterprise," and any other sleazy excuse they can find to keep the profits flowing.  Enough!  Lock 'em up, and throw away the keys.  Short of that, this restaurant bill is a modest start.

 I agree with you a hundred precent. I have lived in both Washington State, which passed the smoking ban in 98, and Arizona, whihc ban smoking in '02. We are behind, and people are so small minded to say people will stop going out if the ban was passed. Wrong yet again smokers, everyone in Washington and Arizona go out and party still.

 Its sorta like making blacks drink from other fountains..Pure facism..You can buy a legal substance.taxed to the nines.but you cant use it any where....They wont make it illegal...too much money involved.so just harrass the users...Just remember folks.....overweight folks,alcohol users,elderly...your all next...Whats the old saying.when they came for my friend in another town..I said nothing,when they came for my neighbor.I remained silent.when they came for me .it was too late!!

 Alcohol is a legal substance, too. However, you can't walk around in public with a beer can in your hand drinking it. Some things have to be regulated because of abuse by non-caring, selfish morons.

http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/39825487.html <---- thought I would share this article. They are actually thinking about lowering drinking age because of smoking ban?????

 As I previously noted in my Letter to the Editor, the State of Virginia purposely releases their "pit bulls" on smokers and the establishments that would have to undergo very expensive transitions to meet our honorable governor's new law.

However, the state turns a blind eye, apparently, to the alcohol consumers who are far more obnoxious in public, and dangerous I might add, than any second-hand smoke.  If the state conferred as much about deaths and maimings from DUI's (and the effect the alcohol consumers have on health-care costs) they would still bury their heads in the sand since they own the sales and revenue from alcohol sales.  Alcohol is viewed as a drug, like nicotine.  Thus, our state is condoning the sale of drugs by the Commonwealth, while slapping, as usual, at the "gnats" who are smokers.  This law will surely meet the honorable governor's real design.................there will be no where for smoker's to dine out, so he'll basically confine us to our homes and vehicles. 

As long as these drum-beaters push the fight against cigarettes, while even their own DUI's and those of their families are hidden from the public, smokers and non-smokers will remain at risk from those driving drunk, and having their rights ignored.  Which would you rather be labeled:  A smoker, or a DRUNK?  Which frightens you most when you leave your home, family in tow, in your automobile?

downs.judy31:

 As I previously noted in my Letter to the Editor, the State of Virginia purposely releases their "pit bulls" on smokers and the establishments that would have to undergo very expensive transitions to meet our honorable governor's new law.

However, the state turns a blind eye, apparently, to the alcohol consumers who are far more obnoxious in public, and dangerous I might add, than any second-hand smoke.  If the state conferred as much about deaths and maimings from DUI's (and the effect the alcohol consumers have on health-care costs) they would still bury their heads in the sand since they own the sales and revenue from alcohol sales.  Alcohol is viewed as a drug, like nicotine.  Thus, our state is condoning the sale of drugs by the Commonwealth, while slapping, as usual, at the "gnats" who are smokers.  This law will surely meet the honorable governor's real design.................there will be no where for smoker's to dine out, so he'll basically confine us to our homes and vehicles. 

As long as these drum-beaters push the fight against cigarettes, while even their own DUI's and those of their families are hidden from the public, smokers and non-smokers will remain at risk from those driving drunk, and having their rights ignored.  Which would you rather be labeled:  A smoker, or a DRUNK?  Which frightens you most when you leave your home, family in tow, in your automobile?

 Sadly, alot of people don't know that when a man is "drunk" he is more likely to kill (more likely to shoot his wife out of anger. Being drunk make you get angry easily) or rape or even molest. a relative of mine was physically  abused by her drunk father. When he was sober, he was the sweetest man on Earth. I think this sort of behavior was the reason alcohol was banned (DUI wasn't a concern back then). Smoking does not cloud a person's judgement as drinking does.