DontRunMeOver

Or your ageing process is accelerated by the effects of the bountiful free radicals contained in second-hand smoke, you wrinkle prematurely and you experience worsening health earlier in life due to the generally enhanced effect of time on your body. Since when did smoking only cause problems in the lungs? Overeating doesn't just cause mouth problems.

__________________

Laces Out Dan!

I obviously meant its harmfull to the person taking in the second hand smoke.

__________________

right-track

DRMO...do you drive?

DontRunMeOver

Yes, once or twice a week on average. Taking my friends to the cinema and sometimes driving to see my girfriend in Cornwall. If it wasn't so risky around here I'd get everybody to cycle to the movies instead

__________________

ArtistInTheAmbulance

wooo cornwall.

anyway.
i think its dumb.
not completely, obviously it has its healthrelated upsides, but, should be upto specific bars&pubs.
s'part of the atmosphere is all.
i dunno. i like it.

__________________
shake your wings like theyre laced with sound!

swim

I don't mind smoke but bars are the exception. It's like lets have 20 people in a not very large room smoke continuosly. There aren't really too many situations where there's someone smoking that you can't just walk away and if you can't walk away people, one maybe two if you're lucky but definitely not 10, will stop if you ask them to. That's what I've found anyway. People who make an effort to complain and be discomforted are even more annoying than smokers.

__________________
http://nakednaps.bandcamp.com/

cardboard adolescent

Alright, I'll admit you seem to know what you're talking about better than I do.

But I still demand conclusive evidence that being exposed to the smoke levels in a restaurant two or three times a month would have any sort of noticeable effect. As for bars, I say you accept whatever risk second hand smoke may pose when you go in there. Chances are you're lowering your life expectancy much more by drinking and driving home than you are by smoking, let alone inhaling second hand smoke, anyway.

DontRunMeOver

Who do you want to accumulate this evidence and who exactly would pay them to gather it? As far as I know there have been a number of studies which have shown a decent correlation between smoke inhalation and cancer, early death and all that. These always get pushed aside by tobacco-industry funded research which shows there to be no correlation. I think there'll be a lot less research done into the effects of first and second hand smoke in the future because it's hardly a lucrative business for the unbiased researcher... plus they know their work is going to be swept under the carpet.

Being exposed to any fumes that are toxic and contain carconegic and ionising components is going to have some kind of effect. You're right in the use of the word 'noticeable', because I think it's true that the majority of non-smokers who die of smoke-enhanced diseases probably don't die purely as a result of passive smoke inhilation.

In most cases it's a cumulative effect, carcinogens in car fumes and fried food doing giving similar free-radical ageing effects and other lifestyle choices all working for or against the health of the person.

At the same time, although typically there would have to be several mutations in the proto-oncogenes or tumor-suppressor genes for carcigonesis* to get started, in theory just one mutation, cause by just one brief contact with a carcinogen could be enough to set off cancer. Potentially, the next time you breathe in smoke that very breath could be the one which gives you a cancer.

The truth is probably somewhere between the standard smoker's denial and the standard non-smoker-health-freak's paranoia... i.e. second-hand smoke can lead to your death but its rare esp. compared to the number of people exposed. I personally think that although first-hand smoke is a big killer (and ager), second-hand smoke is still a health and aesthetic threat but it ranks pretty low on my list of things to avoid.

*Cancer-cell generation.
You're also massively increasing your chances of being arrested for drunk-driving!

__________________

cardboard adolescent

I know. That's why I began my next statement with "seriously though."

That implies I wasn't being serious before.

DearJenny

I'm a heavy smoker so I smoke whenever, wherever I can. Of course, I'm not gonna blow smoke in babies faces or anything. At work last night a coworker brought her baby to work and I was sure to stand in the back room and smoke while she was there. I was considerate.

__________________