The Student Room Group

The Smoking Ban MUST be repealed.

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Original post by Maker
The difference between drinking alcohol and second hand smoke is no one forces you to drink alcohol but sitting the the same room with smokers forces you to breathe in second hand smoke breathed out from the scabby cancer filled lungs of smokers.


Indeed. I live near a hotel. (I have no choice but to walk past there if I want to go almost everywhere) And there's almost always someone smoking right outside. At least when I walk past the pubs, (I live on the outskirts of town) I don't have to breathe in the fums from alcohol, nor am I forced to drink it. Whereas I've either got to hold my breath or breathe in second hand smoke. Neither are that desireable.
Reply 41
The argument about avoiding smokey places if you don't want to smoke falls flat on its face when I think back to being 16 and working as a lifeguard. The leisure centre would frequently hold concerts and weddings in the main hall through which id have to walk through or work in. That was a lot of passive smoking in a job you'd never associate with smoke.

It wasn't just pubs that were spared the stench of other people's smoking.
Original post by Dr Pesto
Probably from all the smoking.


It has a heart condition. If you hit it it's murder
Obviously there's a problem with pubs, but it's not smoking. The problem is that the rate of tax is disproportionately high on pub drinks relative to things bought from supermarkets. Taxes should be increased on drinks to be consumed at home and decreased on drinks in pubs and bars. This raises tax revenues, saves the dying pubs of the UK, and allows alcohol consumption to take place to a much greater extent in a moderated/regulated venue.
We don't have cowboys in England...
Original post by DorianGrayism
You are living in the past. The pub is no longer the "heart" of British culture.

I doubt the majority of Pub goers want to return to places where it was filled with drunkards that don't care about their health.

Even ignoring that issue, the worker has the right to be protected from known harmful substances.


Then why not ban cigarette smoking altogether and classify it under, say, as class C drug?
Original post by ODES_PDES
Then why not ban cigarette smoking altogether and classify it under, say, as class C drug?


Tax revenue from tobacco in 2012/13 amounted to £12.3 billion £9.7 billion in excise duty plus £2.6 billion in VAT. The total tax burden (excise duty plus VAT) accounts for 88% of the price of the cheapest cigarettes on sale in the UK.

I've no idea why they don't ban cigarettes :bigsmile:
No. Pubs are far more pleasant since the ban and I don't mind going outside to smoke (well, vape now). In fact I prefer it. However, I would relax the ban a little. Put smoking areas airside at airports, and on train station platforms and other 'enclosed public spaces' that aren't actually enclosed.
Is it really that big of a deal just to walk outside?
Smoking is absolute filth, the government should ban vaping in no-smoking areas


People who don't smoke who have smoking related illness should be able to file lawsuits against premises which allow smoking
This is why I'll probably vote to stay in the EU, I would prefer slightly over-sensitive leftists in Brussels running the show than little Englanders who think the best argument in favour of anything in life is ''it never did me any harm''
Original post by Mahmoud X
Smoking is absolute filth, the government should ban vaping in no-smoking areas


People who don't smoke who have smoking related illness should be able to file lawsuits against premises which allow smoking


Ban vaping why?


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Original post by paul514
Ban vaping why?


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In enclosed public areas, the workplace, public transport it should be banned, the vapour contains nicotine which is a harmful substance and neutral evidence from the WHO shows that it's still carcinogenic. People wrongly treat vaping like eating sweets.
Original post by Dr Pesto
Probably from all the smoking.


I thought that was deliberate, as a pun.
Original post by Mahmoud X
In enclosed public areas, the workplace, public transport it should be banned, the vapour contains nicotine which is a harmful substance and neutral evidence from the WHO shows that it's still carcinogenic. People wrongly treat vaping like eating sweets.


The vapour only contains nicotine if it containcs nicotine. It is possible to get non-nicotine e-juice, which a lot of people use.

If nicotine is "harmful", then you'd better stop eating tomatoes, potatoes, cauliflower, green peppers, etc. and we should ban all restaurants and pubs from serving any food containing these. Also, if any studies claim that nicotine is carcinogenic, then they would be very inconclusive, as there are a lot of studies which show that it is not. Seems like you've cherry-picked one.

Also, if people are going to be so precious about second hand smoke, I would expect these people to be wearing face masks whenever they are near heavy traffic due to the potentially harmful exhaust fumes they are breathing in. Ironic that you should say "Ban nicotine on public transport".
Original post by Mahmoud X

People who don't smoke who have smoking related illness should be able to file lawsuits against premises which allow smoking


I'm imagining it would be very difficult to prove that the illness came from second hand smoke.

I'm also imagining you drive a car too, right? Or get some kind of public transport? Then you are responsible for chugging all of those exhaust chemicals into people's lungs, and could possibly be sued if they get a related illness.
Original post by frankieboy
The vapour only contains nicotine if it containcs nicotine. It is possible to get non-nicotine e-juice, which a lot of people use.




This is an absurd tautology which could never be used to justify smoking


cigarettes only contain tobacco and nicotine if you smoke tobacco nicotine

Original post by frankieboy
If nicotine is "harmful", then you'd better stop eating tomatoes, potatoes, cauliflower, green peppers, etc. and we should ban all restaurants and pubs from serving any food containing these. Also, if any studies claim that nicotine is carcinogenic, then they would be very inconclusive, as there are a lot of studies which show that it is not. Seems like you've cherry-picked one.



You can't draw an equivalence by ignoring the vast differences between nicotine in vapour designed to give a high and natural residual nicotine in plants. There exists asbestos in much of what we eat, it doesn't mean that asbestos should be legalised as a building material.

Original post by frankieboy
Also, if people are going to be so precious about second hand smoke, I would expect these people to be wearing face masks whenever they are near heavy traffic due to the potentially harmful exhaust fumes they are breathing in. Ironic that you should say "Ban nicotine on public transport".


Again it goes back to protecting people as far as we can, with minimum trade-off.

Banning smoking on public transport is a reasonable measure given that smoking is hardly a necessity, banning the combustion engine would see the end of the world economy, but I am hopeful that electric engines will take over one day and that way, you'll only have one way of killing yourself :smile:
Original post by The_Last_Melon
Pubs are described as the heart of British culture. To ban smoking in a pub is not only a disgrace against individual liberty it is a act of treason against the bedrock of this nation. I go to the pub for vice, poison and laughter and that is how it's supposed to be. A pub is a place where those who have accepted their mortality come to exchange ideas.

If people do not like smoking in pubs they should go to a specific place which has that rule. Pubs should be free to set their rules, but in no way should the government encroach on this like it has done in the recent years.

There is a line in a song "cowboys like smokey ol' pool rooms and clear mountain mornings". Cowboys won't come to pubs with this law, and so you have no excitement, nobody will come to a pub without energy.

This country is dying and we need to save it. It has a heart condition. Pubs have to compete with supermarkets so they can't sell beer at reasonable prices and government is making ridiculous PC laws against them. The result is that people aren't talking to each other. Nobody is exchanging ideas anymore and so the country is dead. No people of character, passion or intellect will ever come from this nation if a lot of the laws brought under Labour are not thrown into the fire.


If you want to destroy your body then go ahead but i personally would prefer to be left out of it. Honestly the only reason smoking is legal at all is because they came about before the war on drugs. These laws make pubs a more open friendly space which IMO they need as they are slowing dying anyways.
Original post by Mahmoud X
This is an absurd tautology which could never be used to justify smoking


cigarettes only contain tobacco and nicotine if you smoke tobacco nicotine


You conveniently ignored the bit about nicotine-free e-juice.

Original post by Mahmoud X
You can't draw an equivalence by ignoring the vast differences between nicotine in vapour designed to give a high and natural residual nicotine in plants. There exists asbestos in much of what we eat, it doesn't mean that asbestos should be legalised as a building material.


So you're saying there's a "safe" level for asbestos? So what's the safe level for nicotine?


Original post by Mahmoud X
Again it goes back to protecting people as far as we can, with minimum trade-off.

Banning smoking on public transport is a reasonable measure given that smoking is hardly a necessity, banning the combustion engine would see the end of the world economy, but I am hopeful that electric engines will take over one day and that way, you'll only have one way of killing yourself :smile:


The combustion engine should have been banned years ago, and well could have been too. Seems that if money is concerned then it suddenly becomes ok to pump out all of those toxic chemicals from our exhausts. Saying there would only be "one way of killing ourselves" is just hyperbole.
Original post by Captain Haddock
No. Pubs are far more pleasant since the ban and I don't mind going outside to smoke (well, vape now). In fact I prefer it. However, I would relax the ban a little. Put smoking areas airside at airports, and on train station platforms and other 'enclosed public spaces' that aren't actually enclosed.


I'd prefer this. As long as I don't have to walk past the smoking area.

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