Should Smoking Be Allowed Outdoors?
SodaHead Living
2011/02/24 16:00:00
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The great outdoors has become the last remaining option for many Americans in need of a cigarette break -- but even this might be going up in smoke.
Chicago and San Francisco already have initiatives to curb secondhand smoke in public places. Now, New York City will ban smoking in parks, beaches, boardwalks, pedestrian plazas and other public spaces beginning on May 23, Reuters reports.
"Frederick Law Olmsted hailed public parks as the 'lungs of the city' -- a haven where one could escape the overcrowded, noisy and polluted streets," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement after signing the legislation on Tuesday. "We need to ensure that our public spaces provide just that -- a healthy place in which to relax and enjoy the surroundings."
New Yorkers are not allowed to smoke in restaurants and bars. They are permitted to light up on sidewalks and streets as well as in parking lots and in their homes, although most landlords don't allow it.
Beginning on May 23, any New Yorker who's caught smoking in a "banned" public space will be given a warning, followed by a $50 fine.
Needless to say, the city's smokers are running out of places to puff -- and some are none to happy about it.
"This is tyranny, rationalized by a lie," Audrey Silk, director of New York Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, told Reuters. "That secondhand smoke is harming anybody outside is an absolute lie."
Chicago and San Francisco already have initiatives to curb secondhand smoke in public places. Now, New York City will ban smoking in parks, beaches, boardwalks, pedestrian plazas and other public spaces beginning on May 23, Reuters reports.
"Frederick Law Olmsted hailed public parks as the 'lungs of the city' -- a haven where one could escape the overcrowded, noisy and polluted streets," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement after signing the legislation on Tuesday. "We need to ensure that our public spaces provide just that -- a healthy place in which to relax and enjoy the surroundings."
New Yorkers are not allowed to smoke in restaurants and bars. They are permitted to light up on sidewalks and streets as well as in parking lots and in their homes, although most landlords don't allow it.
Beginning on May 23, any New Yorker who's caught smoking in a "banned" public space will be given a warning, followed by a $50 fine.
Needless to say, the city's smokers are running out of places to puff -- and some are none to happy about it.
"This is tyranny, rationalized by a lie," Audrey Silk, director of New York Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, told Reuters. "That secondhand smoke is harming anybody outside is an absolute lie."
Read More: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/23/us-nyc-s...
One who would live in a dome put on the white jumpsuit and eat the behavioral pill each day as a good domer would do
One who would live in a dome put on their white jumpsuit and eat the behavioral pill each day as a good domer would do.
People shouldn't smoke outdoors in your face, but surely some accommodation could be made. If they want to ban tobacco, they should just do it.
Smokers have been marked as the new persecuted group in America because they transcend all races, ethnicities and religions. Nobody can accuse persecuting them as discriminatory under law. But things have really become absurd. Smoking on NYC beaches was banned on the grounds that the butts add to Ocean Pollution. Nuts.
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Oh by the way, I AM NOT A SMOKER!!!!
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