List of smoking bans starting today

[burnthebeautiful]

Smoking bans are introduced so often these days, that it becomes repetitive to talk about it every time one passes... Here's a list of smoking laws coming into effect January 1st, 2007. Stuff in parenthesis is from me.

Source: http://www.tobacco.org/ (It's a pro-smoking ban website, but the website provides a good news service)

# BELGIUM: Smoking ban in restaurants goes into effect. (Bars that generate more than 30% of their revenue from food can now only allow smoking in designated smoking rooms. Membership clubs exempt, apparently a bunch of restaurants are considering imposing a one euro a year "membership fee")
# HONG KONG: Smoking ban in restaurants, parks and beaches goes into effect.
# THAILAND: Smoking ban goes into effect. December 29, 2006
# UK: National Health Service (NHS) goes completely nonsmoking. (You can't get tax-funded health care if you smoke)

# D.C.: Smoking ban extends to bars. (The cafeteria in the house of representatives building is exempt...)
# ILLINOIS: Smoking bans go into effect in Cook County, unincorporated McLean County, Bloomington and Urbana. Champaign's smoking ban goes into effect Jan. 31.
# INDIANA: Smoking bans go into effect in Vanderburgh County and Evansville, as well as throughout the entire 12-county Evansville Diocese (By Jan. 2)
# LOUISIANA: Statewide smoking ban goes into effect. (Stand-alone bars exempt)
# MINNESOTA: Beltrami County's 2-year-old exemption for bars and restaurants expires.
# MISSISSIPPI: Hattiesburg smoking ban goes into effect.
# PENNSYLVANIA: Allegheny County smoking ban goes into effect; currently a lawsuit challenges whether it will affect bars/restaurants. Scranton ban will go into effect Jan. 7.
# SOUTH CAROLINA: Greenville smoking ban goes into effect. Restraining order defeated.
# TEXAS: Baytown smoking ban goes into effect.
# UTAH: Smoking ban to expand to Clubs and Private dining facilities.
# WISCONSIN: Smoking bans in hospitals and colleges go into effect.

# KANSAS: Garden City smoking ban due to go into effect Jan. 8.
# MISSOURI: Columbia smoking ban due to go into effect Jan. 9.

# TEXAS: Cigarette tax due to rise $1 a pack, to $1.41
# SOUTH DAKOTA: Election-mandated cigarette tax due to rise $1 a pack, to $1.53.

# CALIFORNIA: Cigarette Fire Safety and Firefighter Protection Act due to go into effect, mandating "fire-safe" cigarettes.

[aries]

# UK: National Health Service (NHS) goes completely nonsmoking. (You can't get tax-funded health care if you smoke)


Wow...


and NH already mandated "fire-safe" cigarettes... did that go into effect yet?

[Michael Fisher]

# Paris, France: Smoking No Longer Tr?s Chic in France

It makes sense that governments are banning smoking worldwide, since historically, tobacco has been mostly synonymous with liberty, and governments are the antithesis of liberty.

[burnthebeautiful]

# UK: National Health Service (NHS) goes completely nonsmoking. (You can't get tax-funded health care if you smoke)


Wow...


and NH already mandated "fire-safe" cigarettes... did that go into effect yet?

I'm not sure about the details of the NHS thing, I don't think the details have been decided yet. I don't think it will be as draconian as "We won't put your broken leg in a cast because you smoke". I think what it will be is if you're a smoker and you get a disease related to smoking, they'll tell you "We'll only treat you if you agree to take this 'help quit smoking' class, or something to that effect. In October England is also raising it's tobacco purchasing age from 16 to 18.

What are fire-safe cigarettes anyway? It sounds stupid.

[error]

What are fire-safe cigarettes anyway? It sounds stupid.

It is stupid. They're cigarettes which, in theory, don't catch things on fire.

[burnthebeautiful]

What are fire-safe cigarettes anyway? It sounds stupid.

It is stupid. They're cigarettes which, in theory, don't catch things on fire.

That's the stupidest thing I've heard all year. It makes me want to set the politicians who voted for its  houses on fire with a lighter and a can of gasoline while I smoke a non-fire safe cigarette without dropping it and shouting "YOUR FIRE SAFE CIGARETTE DIDN'T SAVE YOU, DID IT MOTHERFUCKER??".

[Braddogg]

From what I underestand, fire-safe cigarettes have little "speed bumps" in the rolling paper that, once hit, slow down the burning embers to the point that they will extinguish unless sucked upon.  So, if the cigarette is being toked at a regular interval, the cigarette will stay lit; otherwise, it will not.  It's to prevent cigarettes from causing fires due to negligence (for example, falling asleep with a lit cigarette).  From what I've seen after a 10-minute google expedition, the ban caused no dip in cigarette sales and no hike in prices where it has been implemented.

[burnthebeautiful]

That's annoying. I'll often put my cigarette down for a minute before resuming smoking. With those cigarettes I'd have to keep lighting them, it would piss me off.

[aries]

The fire safe cigarettes have bands of fire-resistant paper in them that wont burn if you don't inhale every 2 minutes or so, they smolder and go out. Some cigarettes wont require modifications like clove cigarettes and American Spirits because they're already tightly packed and go out within the specified time (I think it's like 3:30)...

It's one of those "sensible" laws... like gun control

[Braddogg]

It's one of those "sensible" laws... like gun control

I'm an anarchist, so I don't support the cigarette laws.  BUT, it's different than the gun control laws.  I can't see logical evidence that the firesafe cigarette laws will actually cause any harm.  Gun control laws are just pure evil that cause nothing but problems.

[aries]

It's one of those "sensible" laws... like gun control

I'm an anarchist, so I don't support the cigarette laws.  BUT, it's different than the gun control laws.  I can't see logical evidence that the firesafe cigarette laws will actually cause any harm.  Gun control laws are just pure evil that cause nothing but problems.

Both "don't harm sales" according to the people pushing them
both are "sensible" and "well needed" because of problems associated with them
Gun control like licensing and background checks arguably doesn't interfere much with lawful purchase, etc, but it's still a hangup.

bleh
btw I'm an anarchist as well... I think because I'm lazy and don't feel like coming up with a working system in my head, I'd rather just have nothing lol

[lordmetroid]

It makes sense that governments are banning smoking worldwide, since historically, tobacco has been mostly synonymous with liberty, and governments are the antithesis of liberty.

That association was engineered by Freud's cousin(I think it was his cousin) by contract of the cigarette companies that wanted to expand the market to the female audience which had not been socially accepted to smoke. A few females was payed to smoke at some feminist demonstration and press was given quotes that smoking liberates women from the social structures.

On the topic however, Sweden has since a few years banned smoking in association to public business(Bars, restaurants for sure and I don't know other stores are also prohibited. Noone smokes in them though). A Bar in my town had a smoke-free policy as a sales-pitch. So much for that competing advantage.

Regarding Gun control. NEVER, I Never submit to U.N. getting it's way of prohibiting guns in the land of the freemen. I have been so compelled to move there so much faster. But the world looks so grim these days. I don't even know if the land of freedom will let people like me wanting more freedom in.

[burnthebeautiful]

Sweden's June 2005 law bans smoking in the indoor portion of any business that sells food or drink. Private member clubs can still allow smoking. Sweden is filled with private member clubs that don't have a very stringent membership acceptance policy... My main hangout in Malmo is a "private membership club". You can smoke there and the beer is cheap. I think there was already a law before June 2005 banning smoking in other workplaces, though. In Swedish office buildings you're allowed to smoke in separate, ventilated smoking rooms. I'm not sure what the loopholes on that are like, like if you can just say the entire office is a smoking room...

[aries]

Sweden's June 2005 law bans smoking in the indoor portion of any business that sells food or drink. Private member clubs can still allow smoking. Sweden is filled with private member clubs that don't have a very stringent membership acceptance policy... My main hangout in Malmo is a "private membership club". You can smoke there and the beer is cheap. I think there was already a law before June 2005 banning smoking in other workplaces, though. In Swedish office buildings you're allowed to smoke in separate, ventilated smoking rooms. I'm not sure what the loopholes on that are like, like if you can just say the entire office is a smoking room...

Similarly utah forbids the consumption of alcohol in places like bars... but not private clubs. You must be a member of any bar to drink there. The statutory minimum cost for membership is $5 iirc.

[burnthebeautiful]

I think Utah is the only place in the western world that has more stringent alcohol laws than Sweden, but alcohol is cheaper in Utah. In Sweden anything over 3.5% can only be sold in government liquor stores, in Utah the maximum volume is 3.2%.

I wonder what the process of becoming a member of a Utah bar is, like if they can just approve you on the spot or not. I imagine businesses would want to make the application process as easy as possible. It sounds like it would be ridiculously inconvenient. Like you want to have a family dinner at a restaurant and have a glass of wine with your meal, and every family member has to apply for membership in advance.