Calif. Says Secondhand Smoke a Pollutant

Hooray!



Unlike many confused libertarians, I welcome this: Calif. Says Secondhand Smoke a Pollutant. You see, I've spent my life having my nose (and throat, sinuses, and lungs) rubbed in the fact that I'm dealing with the hazardous chemicals smokers emit whether I want to or not. Even here in California, I have spent a significant portion of my life sick because of some inconsiderate boor's smoking, and you folks wonder why I'm in favor of increasing regulations. The answer is because you, in the aggregate, will not control where and when you emit. You congregate right at the entrance to damned near every building, as if to take revenge for not being able to inflict the byproducts of your habit on those who have chosen not to allow you to emit your noxious waste inside those buildings. You stand upwind of people who want no part of your filthy habit and inflict your hazardous waste upon innocent bystanders. Even in theoretically non-smoking restaurants, every time somebody opens the door there's a major chance of your foul-smelling byproduct being pushed in by the wind. If you weren't protected by the tobacco lobby, you'd be dealing with these folks and these folks every time you light up. And I'm thinking that would be a good thing. I don't see an essential difference between the smokestack of a coal-fired plant and a smoker. Actually, I see the former as producing economic benefits to society whereas the latter produces only costs. A mandatory containment system for tobacco byproducts would make my whole decade.



I concede your right to smoke so long as you concede my right not to breathe the byproducts of it. Poison yourself all you want, any time you want. But that doesn't give you the right to inflict it on anyone else.