I believe it should be left up to the individual business as to how to run there business. If they would like to offer a smoking area then they should be able too. We have enough laws governing our every step now, it is just adding to it. It would be interesting if this law passes, that since we are a nation of over weight people if they came out with a calorie count at restuantes also. Maybe the surgeon general should look into that also. You could have a criteria set up that if you are overweight then you would not be able to order anything biggie sized, nothing but diet plates etc. Think about the things you want to make into laws. One day you will lose a right you most like to have because you think we should have a law to govern our every step.

i think smoking "inside" public places should be banned . you should not have too choose where you shop because a smoker has
to light up before he can go outside ! also, if you are overweight
and "biggie size" your order , the only person you hurt is yourself !
some laws that are put in place to protect the "whole" is a good thing !

I am originally from Ottawa but know I live in Arkansas. Anyway, we just got a smoking ban for all of Arkansas, i like it a lot better! i grew up around people that smoked and i can't stand the smell. i'm also pregnant. i don't think that my baby, my husband, or myself should be punished just because some people have a gross habit. besides why do people have a problem going outside to smoke?

I would like to make a brief comment on the smoking bans. It is ok to ban smoking in office buildings and those types of places but to ban smoking in all places is taking away my right. Smoking or the buying of tobaco products is not against the law. I am not going to get in a car and drive impaired. In a cafe why is it that people who do not smoke sit in the smoking section and complain. How many of the so called non smokers go to smoke filled bars at night and smoke themselves? I hear it from many people that the only time they smoke is when they drink. I also hear from people that use drugs " I can not stand the smell of cigarette smoke" but they can use drugs?? Now what about the people that wear such loud cologne and perfume that it sends asthma victims running from a public place. Some end up in the hospital. Do we ban perfume wearing now too? Are we such stupid people in this world that we can not make free choices?? Smoking bans should be left to the choice of a business not to government. They control too much of our lives now.

Smoking Ban whats next? next they will tell you that you can't hold your wifes hand in public because it offends somebody, i will tell you i will not give up my smoking products i smoke a pipe, tell all these fools that are for a smoking Ban i was going to quit but now i will not we have lost to many freedoms as it is, i put 23 yrs in the service fighting for freedom where will it stop some clown don't think is right so he or she gets some other fools to jump on the band wagon to say it needs to be taken away like i said WHATS NEXT??? you peapole for the Smoking Ban get a life

We have lost a freedom when the "authorities" take it upon themselves to regulate our rights to the "PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS". I seriously doubt their "rights" to intervene or make laws to these effects. People, you WILL be voted out of office.
By the way...I'm a non smoker.

I agree with the idea of free choice. I have lived with and around smokers all my life and have yet to see the results of second hand smoke. My mother is 85 years young and to date no health issues that are related to second hand smoke. My sister age 59 also has no issues and neither do I. All 3 of us have lived in households with smokers from birth until the present and none of us smoke. If we demand that business's not allow smokers we are taking away the concept of free enterprise. Many business have good seperation between their smoking and non-smoking sections and non smokers have the choice of where they sit while smokers don't. Let this one go and leave the smokers alone. The stats that are given by the professionals are not they accurate from I can see. People that have smoked for years never get lung cancer or any disease related to smoking while others get lung cancer that have never touched a cigarette. Let's worry about more important things like our nations safety, the safety of our children from predators, etc.

Cool site.

Grant money into County Health Departments, is where the money is coming from. Johnson and Johnson's partner, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, donated over $400,000,000.00 last year. They hold 66,400,000 shares of J&J stock. J&J, besides that warm and fuzzy baby powder, market Nicoderm, Nicorette, and Chantix. This is why, your County Health Department employees, are not lobbying to stop the selling of tobacco. No one would BUY nicotine replacement products. Your County employees are operating this agenda with PRIVATE foundation funds, and are not even clocking out from their tax payers time to do it! Even State officials are taking "training" trips on this money! Check out the Kansas Health Policy Authority site. Tells you about Senators Barnett and Kelley's trip to the Renaissance Hotel, in Chicago. funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Personally, I think all this pharma money into our state should be swept into the general fund. But our State employees who get this grants, have to push the agenda of the grantors.
Thought you might find this interesting. In this time. when jobs are not available, your County Health Departments, do not care that they will be putting people out of work. People that have run their own businesses for years, and have donated into our communities through taxes, and jobs. Your neighbors.
If you do not want to be around smokers, you make that choice.