Chicago smoking ban

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From the Trib:

Daley says smoking on stage should be snuffed

Published May 6, 2007
Mayor Richard Daley said Saturday that there should be no exceptions to the city's anti-smoking ordinance or a proposed statewide smoking ban, not even actors in Chicago's bustling theater industry.

"The law applies to everyone, it applies everywhere," Daley said, speaking with reporters at the Kids & Kites Festival at the Museum of Science and Industry. "You can't exempt them from a state law."

Daley's comments came the day after a City Council panel considered, then rejected, a proposal to create a loophole in the smoking ban so actors could smoke on stage.

Forbidding actors to smoke in cases where the playwright would have wanted them to puff away amounts to "asking an artist to change his art," Lou Raizin, president of Broadway in Chicago, told members of the council's Buildings Committee on Friday.

But Daley said that if actors wanted to maintain the artistic authenticity of the performance, "they can always use fake ones."

The city's smoking ban took effect in January 2006, with bars and restaurants with bar areas given until July 2008 to eliminate smoking.

But the Illinois House approved a statewide smoking ban in public places Tuesday, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich has said he is likely to sign the measure.

The state prohibition would take effect Jan. 1 and would trump any exemptions that the aldermen might grant, said Kelvy Brown, legislative coordinator for the city's Health Department.

Chicago smoking ban

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I smoke, but I can understand non-smoker's objections to my filthy habit and so on.

The thing that gets me is that a lot of old men who obviously take a lot of pleasure from sitting in pubs all day smoking and drinking will be denied that pleasure. At my local there's a man aged about 80 who smokes about 40 a day. He sits in the pub and seems content. Having to go outside every half hour for a smoke will undoubtedly impinge on this nice old man's happiness.

Same thing with hospitals. I think it's unbelievable that someone should have to drag themselves, IV unit in tow, outside of hospital grounds, just in order to have a cigarette.

Bah. I'm not looking forward to the ban. Not one bit.

Chicago smoking ban

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"Non-smokers...what a bunch of whining maggots. Bunch of self-righteous little slugs. My biggest fear is that if i quit smoking i'll become one of you"

“The worst kind of non-smokers are the ones that come up to you and cough. I always say 'shit, you're lucky you don't smoke. I smoke all day and i don't cough like that.".......
But I think that is kind of cruel...I'm smoking and you come up to me coughing?..That's pretty fucking cruel isn't it? Do you go up to cripples and dance too?”

“I have something to tell you non-smokers that I know for a fact that you don't know, and I feel it's my duty to pass on information at all times. Ready?. . . . Non-smokers die every day . . . Enjoy your evening. See, I know that you entertain this eternal life fantasy because you've chosen not to smoke, but let me be the 1st to POP that bubble and bring you hurling back to reality . . . You're dead too.”

Chicago smoking ban

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Antero wrote:I for one welcome it. I don't see why anyone should be forced to breathe someone else's smoke.


Going to bars is compulsory over there? Shit, I need to emigrate....

soul_rancher wrote:1. cigarette smokers are a burden on any country's health system.


I don't know about the US, but over here the govt receive enough revenue from smokers to run our national health service twice over. (mind you, if they spent the amount they should on the health service....)


Our ban is worse. There are no loopholes - no 'clean air technology' bollocks or 'members only' proviso's - it applies to every single licensed establishment with no exceptions.


Oh, apart from 3 bars in the house of commons.

Hypocrites.

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