Jezza13 wrote:
Zoue wrote:
Black_Flag_11 wrote:
Exediron wrote:
MB-BOB wrote:
Time for the EU to ban the product from any involvement whatsoever. Like that will happen.
Unpopular opinion, but everyone - not just the EU - should ban them outright, not just the advertising. They're a menace to society, and contribute absolutely nothing but money in the pockets of certain corporations.
Equally unpopular opinion I imagine but I think it's important people have the freedom to kill themselves slowly over time if they wish. I have no particular love for cigarettes themselves but the idea of them being banned outright doesn't quite feel right to me. Anyway this is sort of off topic, or least Ferrari would like us to think so
It's a political can of worms but one of the issues with smoking is that it's virtually impossible for it not to affect other people, too. One might argue that a drunk will affect others, but that's more from a nuisance rather than health point of view, whereas unless a smoker wears a bubble helmet the smoke also has the potential to slowly kill everyone they are in contact with, too. So while I agree with the principle that people should be allowed to kill themselves slowly if they are that way inclined, I'm against the method in this instance because they're not just doing it to themselves
If you look at smoke related deaths or illnesses/ injuries, at a guess i'd wager most tobacco related deaths and diseases affect the smoker alone. Not all, but an overwhelming majority. A small minority affect non-smokers.
If you consider alcohol related deaths, illnesses or injuries, a fair percentage would be of those who were not the actual consumer.
Consider road deaths due to DUI's, domestic violence instances, public brawls, some resulting in death, alcohol related deaths by drownings and other misadventure. This would indicate to me that alcohol could reasonably be considered a more socially insidious product when it comes to deaths than ciggies and a bigger burdon on the public purse as well.
The only reason they won't ban tobacco is the same reason why prohibition didn't work in the States in the early 1900's. It's all to do with money and black market tobacco. Governments are just as addicted to darbs & grog sadly as much as some of the general population are.
The World Health Organisation has this to say about secondary smoking:
Globally, more than a third of all people are regularly exposed to the harmful effects of smoke. This exposure is responsible for about 600,000 deaths per year, and about 1% of the global burden of disease worldwide. This risk factor is prevalent in practically every region of the world.Generally, it's harder to quantify the impact of "secondary drinking," if that's even the right term, but the only point I was trying to make was that it's possible to have a drink, even in company, and not affect anyone else in the slightest, whereas that is much harder to do when smoking. The incidents you mentioned above are down to the individual abusing the product, rather than issues with drinking anything at all. But I do agree that drunken behavior of any sort is unpleasant and often dangerous.
But smoking gets in your clothes, your eyes etc and in some cases can make it hard to breathe, and I'm talking about the passive smoker. When I was younger I used to hate some plane journeys as for some inexplicable reason smoke never respected the non-smoking delineation and breathing in everybody else's fumes with nowhere to escape to was a deeply unpleasant experience. I often found it quite difficult to simply breathe properly (I used to travel a lot). Same for the Underground and other enclosed spaces, while eating out in restaurants wasn't a lot of fun when you couldn't taste the food over other people's smoke. That level of invasiveness just isn't there with drinking, for example, which is why I'd be happier to see a smoking ban than a drinking one. There are other ways to tackle abusive behavior but something that affects the innocent regardless isn't something I feel should be allowed, broadly speaking
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