The Smoking ban reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Smoking ban

Smoking bans have been introduced by many countries in various forms over the years, with legislators citing health statistics that show smoking is sometimes fatal for the smokers and those subjected to second-hand smoke. Generally the ban is on smoking in indoor public places, or unventilated sections of such places, and not an outright ban.

In many jurisdictions, the sale of tobacco to minors, or minors under a certain age, is prohibited. In the US it's against the law to sell cigarettes to minors under 18.

Despite the dire warnings from smokers that hospitality businesses such as hotels, restaurants and bars would suffer disastrously from smoking bans, with many of them going broke, the experiences of New York and California showed that business does survive. Stiff opposition to these smoking bans from smokers, bar owners, and even some non-smokers, is still prevalent in these two states, however.

Recent countries to introduce a comprehensive ban are: New Zealand which passed the Smokefree Environments Amendment Bill on December 3, 2003; and the Republic of Ireland, which became the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places (and hence bars and restaurants) on March 29, 2004. In other countries, such as France, bans enacted earlier allows for smoking sections in restaurants, as well as possible special rooms for use by smokers in other work places (though many employers prefer not to incur the costs of building and maintaining such rooms, leaving smoking employees to go smoke outside).

Another question is that of enforcement. Depending on the jurisdiction, bans may be strictly or more laxly enforced, or enforced differently in public and private spaces (more severely in the latter case).

Recently there has been a growing desire by some anti-smoking activists and health officials to prohibit the sale and consumption of all tobacco products regardless of whether they're used in public places or private homes. US Surgeon General Richard Carmona stirred some controversy in June 2003 when he publicly called for all tobacco products to be banned nationwide. A similar attitude is entrenched in the British medical journal the Lancet, which called for a similar total ban in the UK in a December 2003 issue.

Such a comprehensive ban would, however, face considerable problems. The experience of the Prohibition of alcohol in the United States in the early 20th century shows that banning a harmful but popular product leads to widespread trafficking, which generates crime. Furthermore, such a ban, as with many law on victimless crimes, would run afoul of personal freedoms. The debate on its probable costs and benefits is thus open.

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