Exactly, couildn't have said it better my self.

Which facts are we ignoring?

Just curious.

I have been living in a world where I didn't have a choice of a non-smoking environment for decades. (About 4 to be more precise.) To quote you, where is the choice in this situation?

Unless drug addicts are told no, they tend to do what ever they feel regardless of the feelings or opinions of others. Why is your choice so much more important than mine? It is legal to want to breathe clean air and said clean air hasn't been shown to make people sick. The same cannot be said of cigarette smoke.

I see that you have ignored the decades of good will that have been shown to smokers before the ban. This must be a case of selective perception because smokers have had these same decades to come to a socially acceptable compromise with the non-smokers and they have failed to do so time and time again.

You smokers weren't interested in compromise when you didn't have to because you had the law on your side. Why are you suddenly so interested in compromising now that the law clearly supports the other side? Or to put it slightly differently, why is the tyrannical exercise of a right on the part of smokers so acceptable and when the non-smokers exercise a right in a similar tyrannical fashion it is so objectionable?

As many have said, you have only yourselves to blame.

Brian.

you mean like

Up to now, it was the NONsmoking majority which was sitting outside like this and often
- was refused service
- was not even allowed to use the infrastructure outside
got the lousiest service on earth

it will be interesting to see how it will develop in the future. On many nice days I will support the smokers in their quest for reasonable service outside

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8540651.stm

Result !

Don't forget even if you sat outside you would find people sitting next to you and wafting their smoke over towards you. I find it startling that so many smokers want to smoke so badly and yet don't want to sit in their own smoke and would rather fan it towards a family with a small child rather than breathe their own poison.

Anyone who thinks that dining alfresco is synonymous with non-smoking is living in a dream world of denial and doesn't even begin to understand the problems that we who are allergic or medically sensitive to smoke have to deal with on a daily basis. It has also been my observation that people who denied the lack of non-smoking areas don't actually care about others as long as they don't perceive themselves as being inconvenienced.

Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.

Brian.

According to 20Minutes around 60 Baiz, restaurants & bars in Basel have turned themselves into smoking clubs. Usually membership costs around 10 francs. Seems to be legal so long as they only allow members to enter?

I cant wait for this ban to come into effect. Let them have their own little private smoking clubs, that's fine by me. I believe that most of the popular bars and restaurants will do just fine, and will be nicer places to attend and for the staff to work in as well.

The smokers will get over it or even maybe give it up!!!!

One year from now smokers will be sarcastically shrugging off the existence of these establishments and saying that smoking pubs don't really exist in any substantial manner. And they'll be right. It's my hope that they'll notice some parallels between their situation and the situation of non-smokers now, but that's wishful thinking.

Thank god for this! I am a smoker but hate coming home smelling like a raped prostitute every evening.

Yes that sounds very pleasant...

Please, please, I hope this goes through...someone told me it might not! After 30 years of cleaning smoker's teeth, I would at least like to eat without the stench....:-))

It has gone through and is definite. It however does not mean that smokers stop smoking. Outside and in the fumoirs and at home they can smoke as much as they want. I am very sorry, but not so much will change.

No I think a lot will change. I can go out for the evening/afternoon and not come home stinking like an ashtray, or even worse with F'd up sinuses that leads to a cold......

"Susan57" is a dentist, confronted with that aspect, and for her, unlike us not so much will change upon the date as the smokers will not give up smoking

Sadly a dentist with only one patient, or at least one who is a smoker. But he or she is at least a faithful customer of 30 years standing...

See what you did there?

As a smoker (though in the process of quitting) I am actually pleased about the ban.. I too hate smelling like smoke, and cannot stand having other persons smoke blown in my face. I do not smoke inside of restaurants even though they can, and never around the trains as there are always so many people there, and I hate when I have to walk by smokers right in front of the entrance of a train.. It's hard for me right now as I try not to smoke, and am around it everywhere, so YAY on the ban.. A soon non~smoker that supports it!

Smoking does not define a personality. Everyone here is talking about smokers as representing a character. Respecting the other is not related to smoking. You respect or not respect your fellow human being regardless of what you choose to do with your health.

Yes, I am a smoker (or at least I was until 5 days ago) but nevertheless, I do not like the fact that I stink after a night out in the club but I also do not like to be bothered by noisy people or noisy children (although I love children) when I am out having nice dinner. I also don't like to smell all sorts of aromas/garlic in a tram. I don't like to be eating in a restaurant where next to me there's a dog and I can go on with a lot of other things...but I do not complain or ask for a ban or become grumpy because of that.

Just bear it and move on. We don't have to like everything that's out there but surely we can live with a lot of it.

Yes yes I know - I have upset many of you and you will say that smoking affects your health whereas the rest do not but I dare to disagree. When noise pollution or any other staff is bothering me, that is affecting my internal peace and harmony and you are definitely affecting my wellbeing .

So just as smokers are bearing you - non smokers- with all your flaws, be respectful enough to bear their flaws and live with it.

If you want to be respected, start with yourself and respect the smokers.


ps - I don't mind the smoking ban...

Noisy people can be annoying, and dogs in restaurants , I don't agree with.
But last I checked garlic/aromas never caused lung cancer and other health problems. So your argument is quite lame. I have no respect for the action of smoking, doesn't mean I am not friends with smokers.