Well if it isn't the second hand smoke, it must be the THIRD HAND SMOKE! Yes, that's it! It's the third hand smoke.

Damn those smokers. Why do they hate America so much?

Unfortunately, I do suffer asthma attacks from exposure to secondhand smoke. Not from casual exposure but for example, when I have traveled and spent hours of time in a casino where smoking is allowed. I can alter my lifestyle around it but if smoking were allowed everywhere, I do wonder how much trouble I would have.

I can certainly understand how second hand smoke can be irritating. As a non-smoker, I dislike coming home from a bar and reeking of smoke. I don't feel that my dislike should trump the rights of the business owner, however.

I hate to sound unsympathetic, but you wouldn't go into someones home and demand that they put out their cigarette, would you? What gives a person the right to do that to a private business owner? Just because they open their doors to the public doesn't mean they are public property.

i don't get it though, why WOULDN'T second hand smoke possibly kill you? you're breathing in smoke, the same thing the smoker is breathing in, just in smaller doses. would take a hell of a lot longer, but still. hm.

It's unfiltered smoke, at that. It probably has alot to do with quantity. You figure it might take a smoker 40 years of smoking a pack a day or more to come down with lung cancer.

Even someone who works as a waitress or bartender probably only inhales a tiny fraction of what the smoker inhales. Even if it was say, 10% (the equivalent of 1 cigarette a day) that works out to 400 years.

Now, of course smoking isn't exactly a linear equation either. First of all, your body heals itself, which you cannot take into account. Second, smoking doesn't really "cause" cancer. After all, there are people that smoke their whole life, and never get sick. George Burns lived to be 100, smoking those big thick cigars.

Justene,
That happens. I know some people who get very sick when exposed to second-hand smoke. People with breathing problems (such as athsma) are particularly susceptable. The difference is that the claims are that someone who would not otherwise have athsma will get it if exposed to second-hand smoke. Untrue. Now, someone with athsma (or other problems) will have an athsma ATTACK or breathing difficulties, but there is a difference.

It's like allergies in that regard. Or reactions to other kinds of smoke. Some people can't live in Houston cause of the air down here, which is also second hand smoke (although of more toxic substances than tobacco).

I'm with Ravenwood in that bar owners should be able to choose whether or not to allow smoking. There is quite possibly some money to be made in non-smoking bars. Or maybe not, and if not, that tells you quite a bit about their clientelle, and telling everyone that they can't smoke at any bar cause 5% (with athsma and the like) of the population can't go to bars just isn't right.

I'd also like to agree with Rav that volume is everything. The difference is the figurative equivalent of sucking on an exhaust pipe for twenty minutes a day and keeping your windows open while halted in rush hour traffic for two hours a day. It's not even close.