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MichaelJMcFadden's bio
Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" and "TobakkoNacht -- The Antismoking Endgame" -
MichaelJMcFadden's latest comments
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7th Mar 2015MichaelJMcFadden commented on:
Should smoking be brought back into pubs?Sovereign, You wrote, "As previously said, I believe we will have to agree to disagree. My main point is that I shouldn't have to breath in cigarette smoke if I do not choose to do so. I have nothing against anyone who chooses to smoke but why should I as a non-smoker have to breath the stuff in?" I don't think we have to agree to disagree. It sounds like we might agree in some areas. We've already agreed that people should not be banned from smoking in their own homes, right? I would also fully agree that you should not be forced to breathe in things you do not want to. No one has the right to force you to enter a business that allows smoking. If they try to physically force you to do so, then you should have them arrested. In terms of public thoroughfares and enormous dilutions and easily avoidable exposures, you're barking up a different tree though. What about heavy perfume? If you don't like it you shouldn't be forced to walk closely behind the blue-haired lady who's reeking of it. Should she be banned from sidewalks until she takes a shower? Should she be ticketed or hauled off to jail for violating the "smell-free" public space? Or should you be expected to just mumble to yourself, "Ick. Another perfume lady. I'll stop walking for about three seconds so she gets 8 feet in front of me instead of 2 feet, or maybe I'll walk a couple of feet closer to the curb or the shops depending on how the wind is blowing." Which do you think would be the better solution? The law? Or you changing your walking patterns when you encountered the problem. OH! Also: you seem to have missed it: Did you agree with this? : "Government-mandated smoking bans should be eliminated for the most part so that smokers will tend to go to places indoors where other people smoke or hang out happily with smokers, and there'd be a lot fewer people out on the sidewalks bothering you! What state/city are you located in? Maybe you could help get rid of a ban in your area and reduce your exposure to the "foul smelling stuff." " It would certainly help you out! :? MJMViewDate:
7th Mar 2015MichaelJMcFadden commented on:
Should smoking be brought back into pubs?Well, we agree on some things though: We both feel that smokers should be free to smoke in their homes, which for most Americans means in their apartment. As far as "walking behind smokers" if the smoke annoys you, why would you do that? If I'm walking along and two people walking in front of me start having a loud argument, I'll simply slow down or speed up for a few seconds to put some space between us. I wouldn't want there to be a law saying that people had to talk in whispers out on the street just so I never have to hear any saying anything that might upset me. And actually we might agree on something else: Government-mandated smoking bans should be eliminated for the most part so that smokers will tend to go to places indoors where other people smoke or hang out happily with smokers, and there'd be a lot fewer people out on the sidewalks bothering you! What state/city are you located in? Maybe you could help get rid of a ban in your area and reduce your exposure to the "foul smelling stuff." Sound like a good idea? :? MJMViewDate:
7th Mar 2015MichaelJMcFadden commented on:
Should smoking be brought back into pubs?Hooting, do you really believe this? "most businesses know that allowing something that less than a fifth of people now do would be an economic death wish for many establishments." If so, then clearly you should have no objection at all to the gvt-imposed ban being lifted. After all, "most businesses" would keep the ban on their own since businesses don't usually have "an economic death wish" -- and those that do.... well, they'd die and be gone! So can we count you as a good solid opponent of the smoking bans then? - MJMViewDate:
7th Mar 2015MichaelJMcFadden commented on:
Should smoking be brought back into pubs?Sovereign, four points if I may.... 1) In terms of your concerns about arsenic, are you aware that even if you sat in a smoking pub for 165,000 hours you'd only be getting the same amount of arsenic as you'd get from drinking a government-approved-as-safe pint of tapwater? Seriously. Do the math on it and you'll find I'm correct. You've been frightened over nothing, 2) In terms of the "foul smelling haze" you encounter when you walk out from shops onto the public sidewalk where people are smoking, you'd have to walk out of such shops and directly through a classic "doorway cloud of smokers" roughly 250 *million* times to get, on average, one single case of lung cancer (figures derived from the EPA Report with corrections for dilution and durations of exposure.) Again, you've been frightened over nothing. 3) You say you want smokers to smoke in their homes, yet I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that you'd support bans in those homes if they happened to be in apartment buildings. Or are you against such bans? 4) You speak practically from a script you should realize when you spout images of hate about smokers' "filthy, disgusting habit." Check out the 3'x4' Wall Poster that people are welcome to freely download and reproduce as a mind-opener: See my bitly link to it at http://bit.ly/WallOfHate 5) As far as the "poisons" from manufactured cigarettes, perhaps you'd like to buttress your efforts to guarantee smokers' freedoms to smoke in their own homes and apartments with a further effort to reduce the 1,000% or so tax rate upon pure, loose, tobacco in the UK? It would certainly help your effort to appear consistent in your thinking, even if we still might disagree on some things. Check out that poster... and see just how you'd fit in. - MJMViewDate:
10th Feb 2015MichaelJMcFadden commented on:
Should smoking be brought back into pubs?rmsuk, you say, "pubs are a much more pleasent place to be without smoke" and it's fine that you should feel that way and seek out pubs that ban smoking. In the same way, teetotalers who hate going home smelling like a brewery, or vegans who hate the stink of burned animal corpses can seek out pubs that THEY find more pleasant as well. But would you want those groups to pass a universal ban against beer or cooked meat in pubs? - MJMViewDate:
10th Feb 2015MichaelJMcFadden commented on:
Should smoking be brought back into pubs?John, you wrote, "I think you have missed the point about passive smoking???" Not at all... unless you're being humorous? Smoking was banned on the basis of workers being unwillingly exposed to a carcinogen that was not an "inherent and necessary" part of the drinking and dining experience. That was the rationale for why the ban had to be universal rather than left up to the owners. To be consistent, then the *SAME* rationale should be used to ban serviced outdoor dining and drinking -- even more so since the majority of studies on secondary smoke exposure and lung cancer are unable to find even a basic statistically significant link between the two (See http://bit.ly/ETSTable ) while almost every study on sun exposure and malignant melanoma is significant. Do I seriously think either one should be banned by government mandate? No. But the crazies would disagree. - MJMViewDate:
8th Feb 2015MichaelJMcFadden commented on:
Should smoking be brought back into pubs?There's no sound reason in the world why smoking needs to be banned by government mandate in all pubs. If the "health of the workers" was the real concern, they'd also be banning all outdoor daytime serviced patio dining/drinking due to the risk of solar radiation causing early and painful deaths due to skin cancer. Sure, sunscreen and awnings help REDUCE the risk, but hey, risk reduction of smoke through ventilation or filtration was decided to be useless, right: better to just have a total ban, eh? Sounds nonsensical, right? But it's no more nonsensical than a total ban on smoking in all pubs! - MJM -
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