The call to ban smoking from alfresco dining areas is indeed an intriguing one. I feel sorry for smokers losing just that little bit more public space to puff in. Playgrounds, sporting fields and other outdoor public meeting places are already mooted for bans and some councils are now on the lookout to shame those who light up near people eating outdoors. It’s kinda cruel isn’t it. Most of the alfresco dining is on the street front which means that carbon monoxide smoke is also coming from the automobiles rumbling down the streets as well.
Will there one day be a panel to answer to like McCarthy had in the 1950’s? Will known associates of smokers have to sign a declaration every time they are in the presence of an active smoker? Perhaps there will be “dob in a smoker” campaigns whereby a resident will be able to call a number if someone strolls past their house smoking a cigarette. Who knows, we could soon find ourselves living a sort of Elizabethan era again where smokers have to create false walls in their homes so they can have a smoking place just like the Catholics had for worship.
It all seems rather draconian to me. Whilst councils and pressure groups are focussed on campaigns like this people are still doing MORE acute harm to each other sans a cigarette and a lighter.
Yeah sure I know that there’s nothing nice about a mouthful of food mixed with a passive waft of cigarette smoke (it’s not nice with car fumes either). I don’t like it but I accept that we non-smokers have total control over the inside now. If I want to eat alfresco I cop it sweet there may be an active smoker in the midst. After all, they are people too.
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