Wednesday, June 01, 2005

That's that then

Today, Sweden banned all smoking in restaurants and bars. Thanks. Sure, we have an awfully big government, butting into every little aspect of peoples lives, but in this particular case? I'm pretty ok with it. I hate going out to eat, just to have to sit in a large cloud of nasty smoke. And more importantly, the health aspect of the restaurang workers - well, if they choose to smoke themselves (as many do), that's obviously fine, but at least they won't have to inhale all that second-hand smoke.

The opposition against this ban has been very tough. People claim that it's a witch-hunt, and a lot of people feel that it's pure evil to force the smokers outside. (This works fine in California, but let's just say that there are certain climate differences.) Well. I say that it isn't half as evil as willingly spreading poision to your surroundings. And I look forward to my next night out - sans smoke.

8 comments:

Niki said...

Yes, Australia did the same thing for restaurants and cafes a few years ago, to the relief of many people. In some bar/pub type places you can still smoke, but not during lunch and dinner-serving times. Although that will possibly be changed to no smoking anywhere, any time like all public building. It's not so bad in the tropical parts of Australia, but here in Melbourne it gets damn cold, especially at night, so it won't be too popular!

Anonymous said...

As a non smoker I think that it's GREAT!!! It will be amazing to be able to drink and eat without all smoke. I'm going out this friday and it will be wonderful not to smell like an ashtray when I return home :-) If the smokers get cold outside they have an easy option: stop smoking :-)

tanvi said...

as a californian, its amazing when i travel outside the state- even within the US the smoking laws arent uniform. but as a non smoker, im definetely glad the trend is spreading (though that law wasnt popular here either, when it started...)

Anonymous said...

I'm a swede living in Italy and they have the ban here as well, and it works perfectly fine. I reckon that if it is possible in Italy it will not be a problem at all in Sweden where only 20%-ish smoke anyway... I'm all for it! Why should the entire society adjust to people with disgusting cancer causing habits?

A simple comparsion, let say that you choose to be vegetarian and people kept pouring cow-blood on your food anyway. It's just the same! I have made a choice not to smoke and it's so damn anoying when people don't respect that and force their bad habit on me anyway. Which is usually the case, smokers always seem to think that everyone else should put up with their smoke. So I think the new law is about time and hope the rest of the world join California, Italy, Australia, Sweden (and others?) soon as well.

Jocelyn:McAuliflower said...

Ditto! Our little city of Eugene also has a smoking ban in effect for all indoor places. Whenever we venture out of the city to eat I thank my lucky stars for living in such a plucky town.

Anonymous said...

We finally did this in Saskatchewan, Canada this year and it can get down to -35 degrees Celcius in the winter - and yes, the smokers are forced outside (yay!). It was implemented in January of this year to much protest, all of which has really died down now but most people really love it!!

Anonymous said...

are you serious?

Anne said...

Marvin - indeed.