As a smoker, I think things have gone a bit far. I can understand not smoking in public places, such as restaurants, airplanes, shopping malls, etc. But when you can offer no legitimate reason for why smoking would cause any damage to anyone else's health but my own, then you've gone overboard, not to mention making opposition to smoking look ridiculous. If you don't like someone smoking at a beach...then walk a little ways away on the beach. What's the big freaking deal?

all die horrific deaths directly related to smoking.

Everybody has to eat.  Sure, they may choose the wrong foods but they have to eat.

Nobody has to smoke.  And anyone who does is just inviting the health issues that comes with it.

I posted to my Facebook account a couple of weeks ago that New York City is trying to ban smoking in outdoor areas now(like parks and beaches). Now today, I saw this article about how the Cincinnati Reds were smoking victory cigars after they clinched the division. At least five idiotic no-lifes complained to the department of health and they are launching an investigation.

I don't smoke. I do drink and am trying to cut down on fast food and other junk foods. When the anti-smoking zealots get their wish and tobacco is as illegal as heroin, they will come after my vices and your vices next.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100930/SPT04/10010340/-1/

Thats what happens when uninformed people vote for him. I didnt vote for him, bloomberg is a meathead , I dont smoke but to ban it in parks is crazy. Fyi this ban was announced a week ago not today. I didnt vote for him, he is all what is wrong with govt, by way he barely won, I am sure he was embarassed how close the election.he also outspent his opponent by a sick amount

With all this tolerance going on, nobody dares criticize someone for raising their kid to make satanic virgin sacrifices or anything. About the only thing left you can kick around without somebody screaming about haters and stuff is smokers.

Of course, smoking is unhealthy and any form of combustion generates toxic byproducts. You could burn oak leaves and the results would contain toxins and carcinogens -- there's nothing special about tobacco.

Meanwhile, 80% of our corn crop and 95% of our soy crop is GMO that has NOT been adequately long-term tested; the American grain-based diet is just the same crap we feed to livestock only dressed up prettier and obesity, heart disease, type II diabetes and more are absolutely rampant. That's because the core of the calories of our diet comes from stuff that has only entered the human foodchain in the last 6,000 years of our 2,500,000 years of divergent evolution. We are not adapted to these foods and the lectins in them lead to all sorts of disorders ranging from cavities to automimmune diseases.

By 2020, 3/4ths of Americans won't just be fat -- they'll be clinically OBESE. Good thing remote controls are getting better because they won't be able to stand up from the couch to reach the TV.

Physical fitness in this country is a damned abomination. Our schools are graduating functional illiterates in droves.

And all government can do is ban smoking on a beach?

Hey, smoking is bad. But it wouldn't be half as bad for people if they ate an evolutionarily appropriate diet with a proper balance of anti-inflammatory omega-3s, minimal carbohydrates to avoid hyperinsulinism and insulin resistance, etc. And if they got proper exercise etc. a lot of the bad effects would be minimized.

You could utterly abolish smoking today and Americans would still die so damned fat they'd need 10 pall-bearers instead of 6. It's a shame.

By nature I'm a pretty politically incorrect guy.

I'm not into smoking myself except on rare occasions; but in protest against this kind of B.S. even though most providers I see don't smoke; any provider who wants to light up during a session with me can feel free to do so.

Fuck political correctness.

1 in 3 people who smoke will die from directly smoking related causes. Those odds are worse than Russian Roulette, so I agree that smoking is not necessarily the wisest choice someone can make.

However it IS a choice. Everybody has a different body and background. Smoking is twice as dangerous for folks of African ancestry as for Europeans; and literally half as dangerous for folks of Asian ancestry. Really -- check out the studies. Meanwhile for people with a family history of neuro-degeneration, there are compounds in tobacco smoke that have a protective effect on the neurons. So a person with no family history of cancer but a family history of certain other diseases might choose to smoke.

The bottom line is that while I agree with you from 10,000 feet that smoking is unhealthy; it IS a choice and a choice that I shouldn't be making for other people. Banning people who smoke from smoking in public is just political correctness. If you read the studies you'll find people get lung cancer from incense too. ANY burning organic matter creates nitrosamines and other carcinogens. Highly diluted tobacco smoke outside is not uniquely harmful compared to anything else that might be burning.

I have lost close family members to medical malpractice. You won't see me trying to ban doctors -- just looking at them with a slightly jaundiced eye.

This was a pretty insightful post. Do you know of any books on these subjects?

Paleo Diet by Dr. Loren Cordain and The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. They also have a lot of info and links to research on their websites.

As for the other info, it comes from an aggregate of various articles and reports. If you are interested in any particular subject, just lemme know and I'll give you some references!

Thanks!

You are definately correct that it's a choice although a stupid one. Based on everything that's known about smoking, anyone that continues to do it needs to have their head examined!

And I've known ppl who smoked their entire lives and live to be 90. My grandmother didn't smoke but was always a big woman (not massive but a stout lady) and lived to be 81.  No offense but the fact you've had a bad experience doesn't justifying curtailing my rights. (No I don't smoke)

finance part of the anti smoking hysteria as part of a legal settlement against them which could be part of the reason why the zealots are so bold in their condemnation of the pleasures of tobacco.

pointing out how stupid it is to smoke.  It's a nervous and deadly habit.  And it affects non-smokers like me who have lost loved ones at much too early of an age.