Re: To smoke or smell or sniffle.

My $0.02: One of the worst effects of second-hand smoke is on clothing. Anything you bring into certain places will smell of smoke - shirt, pants, and worst is coats. I keep a separate "smoky bar coat", that I never wear anywhere else. One positive outcome of the increased focus on smoke has been that some establishments have upgraded their ventilation systems to truly handle smoke. That means a lot more than just a smoke-eater sparking away on the ceiling - those things are easily overwhelmed, and nobody ever climbs up there to clean the filters. It means redesigning the whole HVAC system to replace a certain percentage of the air with fresh air from outside every hour, rather than just recirculating it. In a climate that can be both extremely cold and very hot at different seasons, it can be an expensive challenge to heat/cool that fresh air from outside temp, but it is within today's ventilation technology. Some enlightened business owners see it as a positive way to accomodate more happy customers (both smokers and non-smokers) who spend more money. If done right, it's a win-win-win, making smokers and non-smokers alike happy, and thereby increasing profits. We've all been to places where this works, and it is appreciated. So one legislative remedy, short of banning smoking, would be to change the building code to mandate such improved ventilation in a place as a condition of allowing smoking. The building codes are already filled with safety requirements in other areas, such as adequate fire escapes. And building code compliance is a prerequisite to a liquor license in most states. THIS is the government action I would favor, instead of an arbitrary ban on smoking. Roger Deschner rogerd(a)uic.edu "A generally unacknowledged truth is that we do and always have relied on certain inefficiencies in law enforcement to maintain our quality of life." - Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, 2003-08-19.