Since
tobacco single-handedly saved
colonial America from
financial ruin all those years ago,
Big Tobacco can prevent the
government from banning it outright. If
tobacco was introduced today, it would never pass the
FDA. But since you can't get rid of it, lets think of alternatives.
In open air, go and smoke. I don't care. The situation Saige mentions is far from a common occurence, don't quote rare incidents as examples. Don't compare tobacco smoke to plutonium. It isn't on the same scale. Just as Saige says guns kill, knives kill, doesn't mean they're all the same, the same principle applies to tobacco versus plutonium. It's dumb.
In restricted space, it's different. For example, last year, on the flight from Shanghai to Amsterdam via Austrian Airlines, a supposedly non-smoking flight, they all lit up. In a plane. Twelve hours of a blue haze. I got sick fairly quickly. That situation was unacceptable.
Anti-smoking zealots tend to be extremely intolerant of all smokers, in all situations. With that kind of radicalism, I have to side with the smokers. If you're going to bitch about every smoker in every situation, then you're being plain annoying. Seriously, tell me how many times you had to spend extended periods of undesired time directly adjacent to a smoker, inhaling the smoke. No, across the other side of the restaurant doesn't count. The amusement park ride example Saige provides is pretty rare I have to say, and does not qualify as an example to ban smoking. In fact, I can say anti-tobacco fanatics are disrespecting the rights of the smokers by refusing them the pleasure of a cigarette, even if it abides by the rules. You can take a tiny bit of second-hand smoke, just as you can absorb radiation from a TV.
Why not ban fat foods? Maybe you should ban sales of Peking Duck, milkshakes, and curly fries because they cause "slow death by the clogging of arteries". If you're so concerned with the health of others, you should crusade against that too. Oh please, don't say second-hand smoke harms others. You can take two small wifts of smoke. America is not permanently surrounded by a blue haze like some other countries are (such as China). The current rules are fine. No smoking indoors and in small enclosed spaces is good enough for me. If you're going to complain endlessly about a smoker 20 yards away in an open bus stop, shut up. Let them kill themselves in peace. You're not going to get a case of instant lung cancer by inhaling two bits worth of diluted smoke.