Restaurant Smoking Ban

[tommy]

several, or all, cigar bars are exempt.  at least according to every source i've read on the subject.

Tommy, if that is true, it is hypercritical to allow cigar bars and only target cigarette smoking.

well, i don't know if it's hypocritical, and i rarely trust studies such as the one you've referenced, but i do know that a total ban would essentially takes peoples' businesses away from them if it included cigar bars. obviously this wouldn't fly. right or wrong. however, i wouldn't be surprised if tougher restrictions are put on cigar bars, and if they are eventually phased out.

[Kikujiro]

Every time I go to the States I envy the smoking restrictions. It is impossible for me to go out for a drink in London without being subjected to nauseating (lit.) gales of second-hand smoke. The same applies to several restaurants. I come back home wearing clothes that need to be aired for 24 hours. We even still have smoking compartments in trains, which are so ridiculously crowded that you cab be forced to sit in them.

At the very least, I'd welcome mandatory no-smoking sections over here. Meanwhile, somebody should open a bar called Smoke and Air: two separate glass boxes connected by an airlock, so you can see the difference; sushi served where you can taste it.

[Kiz]

several, or all, cigar bars are exempt.  at least according to every source i've read on the subject.

Tommy, if that is true, it is hypercritical to allow cigar bars and only target cigarette smoking.

methinks it's a scale issue. if most of the bars in the city were nonsmoking bars, there'd be reasonable employment opportunities for wait staff, bartenders, etc who want to avoid the smoke -- and reasonable alternatives for patrons who want to avoid it. but that isn't the case now, so this legislation was seen as necessary by those who passed it.

otoh, there's less than a dozen cigar bars, and as mentioned, it's their whole reason for being. I don't think it's hypocritical to let them continue. no one is saying cigars are better for you than cigarettes -- they're just saying that the cigar-bar market isn't so large that secondhand smoke within it poses a threat to employees who are left with no other options.

[Wilfrid]

The fucking criminals who manufacture the stuff are no better than the makers of Zyklon B.

Hyperbole, as you well know. It's not a criminal offence.

[jaybee]

Hyperbole, as you well know. It's not a criminal offence.

True, but neither was making Zyklon B in 1943 Germany.