By Chris Broscomb The United Kingdom
Your articles on the Santa Monica smoking ban made interesting reading and highlighted many similarities to the time leading up to the smoking ban in the U.K.
The pressure and lobbyists make sure that their voice is heard, and the merchants who have a lot to lose hear little of what is going on. We heard amazing statements of polls suggesting how a massive percentage of people wanted the ban. These polls were commissioned by ASH and Cancer Research U.K., and only after the bill was passed by Parliament did we learn from the government’s own independent Office of National Statistics that this enthusiasm for a ban was only 33 percent, not the claimed 71 percent. What is worse, however, as happened in your article, is that the people, both smokers and tolerant non-smokers, are totally ignored. These people are individuals who play no part in any lobby or trade group. They are not crusaders, but simply citizens whose lives will change forever.
Smoking may not be good, but life, living and simple pleasures are ignored in the fight against tobacco. It is already obvious from Ireland that smoking is increasing. The publicity of smoking bans and their unintended consequences are tobacco’s best advert.
Smoking is a social activity and will continue. Don’t put it out into the streets in full view of children or force it into the home where again children will be exposed. Keep smoking in the adult atmosphere of bars where it belongs out of sight of children.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 5, 2006. Read the original PDF.