Les Jones

I puff (don't inhale like ol' Bill) a cigar occasionally so I will miss that.

I'm still not clear on bars and outside eating areas...how is that effected?

It's a stupid idea. If you don't want to go to a restaurant that allows smoking, don't go!

Les:

I don't smoke nor have I ever smoked. I hate being around the stuff. That being said, I still don't think the government should tell businesses what they can/can't do.

Mushy:

According to the things I have read, smoking is allowed in outside areas, businesses that prohibit under 21-year-olds, and businesses with separate ventilation for their smoking area (I believe).

I am torn on this. Part of me is very happy and part of me is very sad. I used to smoke a little. At night in social settings, the neighborhood bar, that kind of thing. But like many people I didn’t get hooked and as time went on I stopped.

I don’t like smoke around me when I am eating. So on that level I am very pleased. But this seems to be a violation of the rights of both citizens and business owners. The fact that the new law is so draconian that businesses that wish to allow smoking cannot makes me a little ashamed of our government. In my opinion the Tennessee legislature overstepped its authority.

This same government now allows revenuers to seize vehicles if a person purchases 26 cartoons of cigarettes across the state line. Cigarettes are legal. But now they are treated like heroin. Of course the funny part is that TennCare is reliant on taxes from cigarettes.

I'm sort of torn, too. There are property rights issues here, but I think the public health issue and personal rights side (your rights end where another's begin) probably come out ahead.

Tennessee's law is less onerous than some. You'll at least be able to smoke in bars restricted to 21 and over, and there aren't any restrictions on smoking within X number of feet of the entrance.

andyinsdca,

It's a brilliant idea. If you don't want to go to a restaurant that doesn't allow smoking, don't go!

But seriously this is totally a public health issue. Lots of restaurants around here allowed smoking, forcing the employees to breath smoke all day. Is it fair that smokers control what restaurants non-smokers can eat in? If anything, the playing field is fair now. All restaurants are smoke free. And unlike a smoke-filled restaurant, the absence of smoke harms no one.

As a non-smoker, I'm happy I can finally go to any restaurant without leaving with my clothes smelling of smoke. Man I hated that.

Let me equate smoking with body odor. If you went into a restaurant that smelled heavily of body odor, it would be unpleasant, wouldn't it? Someone might ask the offender to leave. That's what your smoking is like to me.

Thanks Les for answering my question.

If this is "totally a public health issue" then they should ban eating fat and sugar in public too. However, I'd rather make up my own mine.

If this is "totally a public health issue" then they should ban eating fat and sugar in public too. However, I'd rather make up my own mine.

Really, we should just scrap OSHA and workplace safety regulations altogether. If people didn't want to work in chicken factories with locked doors, they wouldn't be taking jobs there.

Mushy, I meant public health in terms of secondhand smoke. People can still smoke outdoors and in their own homes.

Well my employer is telling us that we have to be 20 YARDS from the building, I have read the law and cannot find that info anywhere. Can employers get into trouble telling us lies about the laws? They say that it is in some information for the employer, they are telling us other off the wall stuff too.