Saturday 9 April 2011

Campaign Comment: the smoking ban

While canvassing in Cottingley old village this week I called upon an elderly bloke. Always votes Tory, which is good, but when I asked - as I always do - whether there was anything that concerned him this is what he said:

"The smoking ban. It is terrible, I have no longer got any social life. They make me - a disabled man - stand outside in the pissing rain where there's nowhere to sit. So I don't go out to pubs and restaurants any more."

So we destroyed this man's pleasure for what? For not one single life saved and on the basis of a misleading campaign against "passive smoking" - just because some folk, most of whom never went anywhere near a pub, didn't like the smell.

I appreciate this man's anger. Do you?

Update: Dick Puddlecote asks in the comments what my response was - to be honest I can't recal precisely. I agreed with him and sympathised - but as a Councillor I cannot change the situation merely express the anger shared with people like this. By way of making the point, we passed the Fleece in Cullingworth this afternoon - good crowd enjoying the sushine outside - almost all of them smoking.

....

5 comments:

Lysistrata said...

I not only appreciate his anger: I share it. And I appreciate your short and truthful analysis; thanks Simon.

George Speller said...

Appreciate it? I share it!

Anonymous said...

Too right I do, but the problem is all the main parties know nothing, they rely on pollsters and lobbyists.
The Government of the day signed the WHO agreement/treaty that aims to ban smoking totally. At no point were we told that our politicians were signing up to it or what it would entail.

They are all a shower of shyte and should be strung up from the nearest lampost!

Anonymous said...

I do appreciate this man's anger, and share it.

So what is he made to stand outside to protect non-smokers from?


ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE –
ESTIMATION OF ITS CONTRIBUTION TO RESPIRABLE SUSPENDED PARTICLES –
METHOD BASED ON SOLANESOL DETERMINATION

"Many plants of the Solanaceae family, which includes the genus Nicotiana, of which the tobacco
plant is a member, contain solanesol; particularly those that contain trace amounts of nicotine.
These include the tomato, eggplant, potato, and pepper.

The potential interference due to these sources is negligible, cooking being the only likely potential source of interference. An interference of this type would bias results high, overestimating the contribution of ETS to RSP.
http://www.coresta.org/Recommended_Methods/CRM_52.pdf


The Nicotine Content of Common Vegetables
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199308053290619


Society for Risk Analysis 1995

Dietary Contributions to Nicotine Body Burden
"Recent USDA food intake surveys are used to perform a probabilistic analysis of dietary intake of nicotine.

Using limited data on nicotine content of foodstuffs (tea, tomato, potato, green pepper, and eggplant) and the 198991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSDII), the absorbed dose of nicotine is shown to be significant compared to present day environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) nicotine exposures."
http://www.riskworld.com/abstract/1995/SRAam95/ab5aa174.htm

But I as a Conservative voter and keen vegetable grower I am horrified to see the current government are still going along with this.

Brave new Tobacco Plan for England
http://www.fctc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=522:new-tobacco-plan-for-england&catid=257:opinion-pieces&Itemid=214

Dick Puddlecote said...

Absolutely. And people like him are all over the country in their hundreds of thousands if not millions, it's just that Westminster bubble types almost never meet them.

What was your response, Simon?