San Diego bans smoking at beaches, parks

[DeclinetoState]

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 13, 9:37 AM ET

SAN DIEGO - Worried about the health effects of secondhand smoke and sick of cleaning up discarded cigarettes, San Diego has banned smoking at its beaches and parks. The city joins nearly 2,300 other municipalities across the nation that have barred smoking in a variety of public places.

In California, smoking bans have caught fire in beach communities. At least 35 cities, including Malibu, Santa Monica and Long Beach, now have ordinances to keep smokers from lighting up on the sand.

Several smokers at San Diego's Ocean Beach welcomed the ban, which was passed late Tuesday.

"I think it's a good idea, as long as they don't make us stop drinking," said beach resident Libby Brignon, a smoker who is fed up with finding butts in the sand.Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060713/ap_on_re_us/beach_smoking_ban)

[ConspiracyBuff]

While I don't agree with banning smoking from Bars, I think it is neccessary at beaches. If for no other reason then all the cigerette butts. Also, it isn't fair to non-smokers because unlike a bar it isn't a part of the expected scenario.

[Rink]

Give er time they'll go to the next best thing, ban smoking in your car and in your own home.

Give em time.

Tobacco is a perfectly LEGAL product, if they do NOT like it then BAN the fuggin product and stop screwin around with totalitarian type laws like this.

If they cant or wont ban the product then STOP banning people from smoking it.

I DO wish someone would challenge these smoking bans on the premise that its a Legal product and the banns hinder their right to freedom of choice.

After all its their body they should have a right to do with it as they see fit, Outdoor smoking hasnt hurt ANYONE and these bans are ludicrous.

Those ban-happy morons should have to prove that outdoor smoking is harmful to peoples health.

One other thing, if smoking is soooooo horrible, then what about those wonderful campfires?

All that smoke billowing all over the place must be just as harmful...

Do you get my drift on this yet?

[Foquet]

Any city or community that bans smoking from their domain should also forfeit the tax revenue that they garner from said sales.

After all, it is "illegal", you know.

That would wake up the idiots in the local city councils, in a hurry.

While I don't agree with banning smoking from Bars, I think it is neccessary at beaches. If for no other reason then all the cigerette butts. Also, it isn't fair to non-smokers because unlike a bar it isn't a part of the expected scenario.

[BEST45CAL]

Give er time they'll go to the next best thing, ban smoking in your car and in your own home.

Give em time.

Tobacco is a perfectly LEGAL product, if they do NOT like it then BAN the fuggin product and stop screwin around with totalitarian type laws like this.

If they cant or wont ban the product then STOP banning people from smoking it.

I DO wish someone would challenge these smoking bans on the premise that its a Legal product and the banns hinder their right to freedom of choice.

After all its their body they should have a right to do with it as they see fit, Outdoor smoking hasnt hurt ANYONE and these bans are ludicrous.

Those ban-happy morons should have to prove that outdoor smoking is harmful to peoples health.

One other thing, if smoking is soooooo horrible, then what about those wonderful campfires?

All that smoke billowing all over the place must be just as harmful...

Do you get my drift on this yet?

Give it time. I'll be glad when they ban smoking in cars. I commute a lot and I have to smell that shit. It comes in through the cars ventilation system. So, if there is someone ahead of me and they're puffing away, I get blasted with their smoke...even if our windows are up.

Then they throw the butt out the window and start grass fires. You wanna talk about some smoke? The grass fires that burn tens of thousands of acres out here (there was one out in the valley the other day on I-580 and I-205) that could have been prevented by banning smoking in cars!

[Foquet]

You sure it is not the crap that you just posted that you smell instead?

At 60MPH on the highway or sitting in traffic smelling other's fumes, you are telling me you can smell ciggy smoke with your windows up..and maybe with the smoker's window up as well?

If so, there are some mad scientists that would interested in looking over your olafactories.

[Rink]

I for one respect a persons right of choice in life.

if its a legal product then let them be, just be respectful if it does impact you and ask them kindly to move upwind, or move upwind of them yourself.

One time i was at the races at Daytona and had two chain-smokin cigar aficianados, they sat right in front of me and my sweetie.

With asthma it did affect me once n a while when the wind was right, but i didnt bother em cuz I knew it was a legal product and two they were in an open-air place and also I respected their right of choice in the things they do in life.

It wasnt till the next race, a couple sat next to us with those selfsame two chain-smokin cigar guys, they finally asked them to nix the cigar smoking cuz it was affecting them adversely.

Got a lil bit tense but i did my best to defuse it.

If its out in the open I have no prob with it.

If you're in your own car and can smell the smoke from another car then stuff like that happens, I too can smell people smokin in their cars when I drive, this with my windows rolled up and fans off.

I am a very sensitive individual which strong smells of many types can send me coughing and hacking to the point of loosing my breath.

But again I STILL respect a smokers right of choice.

And it IS a legal product, IF they make it illegal that would be a whole different ballgame.

But I do think its rediculous to ban smoking in open-air places such as parks and beaches with the winds and all making it nearly impossible to really be severely affected by the smoking.

UNLESS of course its a clear non-windy day that keps the smoke in the area which is so rare its unfunny.

[BEST45CAL]

You sure it is not the crap that you just posted that you smell instead?

At 60MPH on the highway or sitting in traffic smelling other's fumes, you are telling me you can smell ciggy smoke with your windows up..and maybe with the smoker's window up as well?

If so, there are some mad scientists that would interested in looking over your olafactories.

Yeah, I'm sure...besides, I never said I was going 60MPH. Out here, we crawl along at 25MPH on a freeway designed for 65MPH. It's called rush hour.

[Rink]

I too can smell people smokin in their cars in the city and yes also during the creeping crawl of rush hour also.

It isnt enough to bother me though.

[True Grace]

Yeah, I'm sure...besides, I never said I was going 60MPH. Out here, we crawl along at 25MPH on a freeway designed for 65MPH. It's called rush hour.

When I moved to the city, it used to freak me out to be completey stopped on the highway. Now I'm amazed when we are actually moving. :lol:

[BEST45CAL]

I predict that smoking in vehicles will be banned soon, too, for just that very reason. Someone will find out that cig smoke goes ALL OVER and into the vehicle behind you.

[Kathy29]

Yeah, I'm sure...besides, I never said I was going 60MPH. Out here, we crawl along at 25MPH on a freeway designed for 65MPH. It's called rush hour.

And you can smell smoke through the exhaust!

Amazing.

[Kathy29]

This is how absolutely utterly stupid people are. They object to smoking because it litters the beach with cigarette butts. They actually object to litter, but it's not politically correct to object to litter. If they objected to litter, they'd have to object to soda cans, dirty disposable diapers (by the hundreds) and food wrappers. So, out of all the litter at the beaches and parks, they will pick on cigarette butts.

It's really quite laughable.

[BEST45CAL]

And you can smell smoke through the exhaust!

Amazing.

OMG...cig smoke is bad, but yeah, exhaust is horrible! From those old clunky 1975 Chevy trucks and station wagons with the fake wood paneling on the sides of the car and the muffler is dragging on the ground making sparks.

Thankfully, because of Caaahleeforneeah's tough emissions standards (lol), the smell of exhaust is pretty much a non-issue. I rarely experience that.

In either case, I try to change lanes since it's illegal to use 40mm grenades to blow them off the road when they're stinking up the place. lol

[BEST45CAL]

This is how absolutely utterly stupid people are. They object to smoking because it litters the beach with cigarette butts. They actually object to litter, but it's not politically correct to object to litter. If they objected to litter, they'd have to object to soda cans, dirty disposable diapers (by the hundreds) and food wrappers. So, out of all the litter at the beaches and parks, they will pick on cigarette butts.

It's really quite laughable.

The real issue is sticking it to big tobacco...sticking it to THE MAN. lol

[CzechPrince]

It's bad enough bars and restraunts are being forced by the government to ban smoking indoors, and now you can't even sit on the beach and smoke?

Boo hoo, you're outside people, get over it. Half the people at the beach smell themselves, I want the government to require everyone to wear deoderant and perfumes. I'd rather smell my cigarette butts than those soccer moms and their smelly kids.

[True Grace]

I'd rather smell my cigarette butts than those soccer moms and their smelly kids.

*....hurls dirty diaper at CzechPrince and runs for her life....*

[Foquet]

If you can prove to me that with windows up and with a car 20 feet away and with the smoker's windows up and ALSO over the crap that your car spews that you can still smell a ciggy...I will give you a lottery ticket for $1,000,000.

You cannot. Game over.

[BEST45CAL]

If you can prove to me that with windows up and with a car 20 feet away and with the smoker's windows up and ALSO over the crap that your car spews that you can still smell a ciggy...I will give you a lottery ticket for $1,000,000.

You cannot. Game over.

LOL

Let me tell you something, cigarette stink is very distinct, just like the smell of death, it has its own note. Smokers, however, cannot detect this odor unless they're on top of it, so I am guessing you're a smoker, which perhaps explains your inability to conceptualize or believe that it's very possible to smell something like that on the highway--even when both vehicles have their windows rolled up. Cigarette smoke isn't the only thing I've smelled out there on the road. I've smelled marijuana smoke, hot brakes, burnt rubber, hot coolant & overheated engines, too. They all smell different.

My car doesn't spew anything. The air that it sucks in is more dirty than the air that it blows out. The only thing that comes out of my tailpipes is pure water...clean enough to drink.

You lose already. I want my ticket. lol

[Foquet]

You never took the bus..did you? And the exhaust it can spew? Ever smell it? Worse than a Rosie O'Donnell fart.

When I can smell your BO with the windows even rolled down, then I might believe you. As for the "smell" of smoke, I should know, since I have been smoking for 24 years.

Sorry..Ticket is puched as a Zero.

[Wolfcounsel]

Soon Nanny Government and its toadies will demand that people buy butt corks to eliminate the emission of sulfides of hydrogen.

One of my favorite scenes is from ESCAPE FROM L.A., where Snake Plissken takes a drag from his cigarette after the electromagnetic pulse has been activated, and he looks at the viewers and says, "Welcome to the human race."

To all the people that are bothered by their environment's emissions, I say go chew a prune once in a while.:evilgrin:

[Foquet]

Or suck on a tailpipe.

You finish the sentence. :evilgrin:

And hifives.

[Wolfcounsel]

Mabuhay!:thumb:

[DeclinetoState]

You can't smoke at the beach in San Diego? Damn! And sand makes such a good ash tray!

[BEST45CAL]

Phone calls to two smokers rights advocacy groups — The Smokers Club Inc., and Forces International — were not immediately returned.

Because they were out picking up cigarette butts from out of the sand.

I don't mind if you smoke if you don't mind if I fart in your face. LOL

[DesertFox]

Personally, I'm all for this ban. Now we don't have to look at people with lung cancer, tongue cancer, eye cancer, etc. on the beach.

Of course, it does nothing for cancers of the skin, head, prostate, boobs or elsewhere. They need to ban the sun at the beach.

[Timberwolf]

Of course the BETTER solution would be to have the non-smokers (who outnumber smokers 8-1) get in smokers faces about littering (which is the REAL problem).

Most cities already have ordinances against littering. Take pictures, have them published in the paper, levy fines and the problem will all but resolve itself.

[Rhino]

While I don't agree with banning smoking from Bars, I think it is neccessary at beaches. If for no other reason then all the cigerette butts.
While I can certainly understand the sentiment, that would be liking banning beer to reduce the number of beer cans on the side of the road.

[Maggie_T]

San Diego bans smoking at beaches, parks


Ah, so the dictatorship has come full circle in San Diego. Well done, comrades!