[Mishmash] Can it really be?????

[Susan Flewelling]

At 04:06 AM 1/6/08, you wrote:
>Dick;
> 
>Why can't the non-smoker quit? Why should the smoker have to do so? Why can't the employer be the one to set the conditions in his own private workplace?


The smoker is the one causing health issues, not the non-smoker.

I find this thread very interesting - if not amazing.  It's been so long since anyone has been allowed to smoke anywhere in public up here that I'd forgotten that right ever existed.  Buildings privately owned but accessible to the public are included so an employer would have no say in whether or not smoking is permitted - by law it isn't.

No Smoking bans have gradually increased over the years - as of January 1st here in Alberta, there's no smoking pretty much anywhere, even outside.  It used to be restaurants could build separate dining areas cordoned off with plexiglass (or whatever), or designate one half the restaurant as smoking (which never made any sense to me) but as of the new year, that is a thing of the past, including smoking in the bars and casinos and on patios.  One exception are the casinos on the native reserves - the band counsels set their own laws - so, of course, smokers are going to going to go the casinos on reserves.

Wolfville, a town in Nova Scotia (Canada) last fall made it an offence to smoke in your car if there is anyone under 18 present in the car.  A few weeks later Bridgewater (also in N.S.) introduced a bill designating the town smoke free so it would be an offence to smoke anywhere outside.  The only place smokers in that town smokers could go for a smoke would be on the bridge which is owned by the Province and not the town. (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071208/nova_smoke_071208)  It will be interesting to see if that passes.

Smoking is a disgusting, dibilitating habit  and I don't miss dodging that bullet - my concern about all the non-smoking legislation being passed is that once that "right" is gone, what will be next under fire.   Actually, I can answer that - trans-fats in foods.  Effective  January 1st here in Calgary restaurants had to convert to trans-fat free cooking oils.  I heard New York has already gone trans-fat free but don't know if that's been legislated or is voluntary.  

Government intrusion into our lives here in Canada is insidious and out of control - I didn't go for my annual physical last fall and I had a letter a few weeks ago from the Department of Health telling me to go get one - and brochures on the dangers of breast cancer, etc.  I am apalled and so angry - this a total invastion of privacy but there's nothing I can do -  in Alberta, your health records are not confidential.

Enough ranting -

Susan
Calgary