Comments on: Has the New Michigan Smoking Ban Gone Too Far?

By: /betty

/betty — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 04:23:03 +0000

This issue is not about health or forcing people to make healthy personal choices. It’s about the rights of everyone, including my right to NOT smoke if I choose not to. Every time I walk across the diag behind someone with a cigarette or wait for a bus next to a smoker, I am being forced to breathe in that smoke as well. Yes, the detriment to my health is probably negligible – unless I happen to have asthma or an allergy to cigarette smoke. The comparison to banning fast food doesn’t hold, as when I eat a Big Mac in front of you, it doesn’t do anything to you. You aren’t inhaling calories or trans fats. By smoking next to me, you are negating MY choices about MY health. I could not care less about what choices you make about your health; you could smoke ten packs a day in your own home and I wouldn’t bat an eye. But when I have to walk through a cloud of smoke every time I need to go to the Fishbowl, that’s when we have a problem. Your “right” to smoke does not trump my right to not smoke.

By: Sara B

Sara B — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:46:35 +0000

Stop with the slippery slope analogies. Secondhand smoke kills people. Chair weakening doesn’t. Furthermore, nobody has banned smoking – only blowing poisonous gasses into the air where they’re likely to be breathed inadvertently by others. Here’s a better analogy: it’s like banning peeing in a swimming pool.

By: R Ozhis

R Ozhis — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:45:39 +0000

Silly. Simply silly. I say the government ban fast food hamburgers. They create fat people and fat people have health problems which cause my insurance premiums to rise. Ban fat people. No fat people in bars or eating establishments. Fat people are a risk to my health in that they cause chairs to weaken when they sit on them. This directly presents a clear second-hand threat to me when I sit down on the weakened chair. It breaks and now I am hurt by the fat person. Ban it.
What’s next people? Wake up!