It’s every smoker’s right to carry on their habit as they wish, I would defend their right to the hilt, however it is also my right to be able to sit in a public area without the intrusion of their smoke threatening my health and well being.
The smoking ban in public areas won’t affect the tax revenue one iota, because, smokers will move outside. Just look at the number of people who stand around, in all weathers, outside of offices where smoking is banned.
What is the bigger concern is the number of kids, especially young girls, which I see smoking. This is where the Gov’t should be concentrating. I know a lot of it is peer pressure, I can recall the same thing when I was at school. If it can be forced down the throats of the sub 16 year age group, that smoking is not cool, it is in fact bloody stupid, then maybe in a few generations time the number of smokers will diminish.
Despite the peer pressure I managed to resist the need to join in and smoke, mainly because both my parents smoked and even then I hated the smell. My mother managed to kick the habit about 6 years ago at the age of 70, even then she suffered a minor stroke as a result of smoking for 50 years. My father contracted throat cancer, which was cleared, even though this was attributed to his life style, he continued to smoke, that is until the day that he suffered a major stroke which robbed him of his mobility, the ability to swallow, put him into care for the rest of his days and ultimately led to his death just over two years ago. Like many starting out smoking today, he maintained it would never affect him.
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