AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Japan has the right idea, I believe they have smoking booths so that people can enjoy a smoke but not bother anyone.
Also (though might not be limited to Japan) they have designated smoking areas as opposed to 'non smoking' areas.
Very sensible while not completely alienating smokers.

You are missing the point. I'm not saying that cars should be banned for exhaust fumes, I'm saying that smoking on the streets has negligible impact on the health of passerbys. Compare the volume of exhaust fumes released in an average city to the volume of smoke released by cigarettes. Do you honestly think the latter will make any significant difference on the air quality?


Also, we get it Wry. Smoking is unhealthy. It's not good for you. You probably shouldn't do it. That's not the point. People are free to make their own life choices.

Unless said passerby are asthmatic or have a breathing condition. One person's cigarette can bring them down for several days after inhaling the smoke. I can guarantee my mom is one of those people and car exhaust doesn't do anything, but one person walking near her after smoking will trigger an attack. Considering one in twelve people have asthma, that's not a small number.

1 in 12? Are you sure? I've never personally seen anyone get an asthma attack.

!0 billion a year in deaths and medical expenses for nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke. (CDC)

Furthermore, http://www.epa.gov/smokefre/healtheffects.html

[*]ETS (environmental tobaccco smoke or secondhand smoke) is a human lung carcinogen, responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers. (JUST lung cancer.)
[*]ETS exposure increases the risk of lower respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. EPA estimates that between 150,000 and 300,000 of these cases annually in infants and young children up to 18 months of age are attributable to exposure to ETS. Of these, between 7,500 and 15,000 will result in hospitalization.
[*]ETS exposure increases the prevalence of fluid in the middle ear, a sign of chronic middle ear disease.
[*]ETS exposure in children irritates the upper respiratory tract and is associated with a small but significant reduction in lung function.
[*]ETS exposure is a risk factor for new cases of asthma in children who have not previously displayed symptoms.

That page lists serious scientific and medical reports from several different scholarly and government organizations who all contribute their findings to the information listed there, and links to several more. All about SECONDHAND smoke.

As for asthma:



8 percent at minimum is the supported figure-- or in other words, 1 in 12, slightly less than 10 percent. Yes.

Within the USA.

http://www.cdc.gov/VitalSigns/Asthma/#

I have asthma and if i'm within like 10 meters of someone smoking I cant breathe

Also just because someone has asthma doesn't mean they have attacks, it basically just means they don't breathe as well as others.

I haven't had an attack in years, I don't even carry around an inhaler anymore or take meds because its almost never a problem, but if I do a lot of physical activity or am nearby someone who's smoking, I have a decent amount of trouble breathing. It also gets worse when I'm stuck in traffic or something like that.

Syoban, here's the thing; common sense doesn't trump actual science. You can't decide that because you've never SEEN something happen or because "logically" to you it seems like something shouldn't matter, it doesn't. Because there's overwhelming research about why it does matter, from many organizations and respected individuals, with years of data to back it up, on every point you've tried to make. Asthma isn't as noticeable as a seizure, people experience it all the time without making a huge scene about it even if it is very severe, and car exhaust doesn't do the same things to humans as cigarette smoke. They are entirely different things; if marijuana and its effects on humans and human health is entirely different from tobacco despite both being drug plants that people smoke in similar ways, why would you think car exhaust is identical or nearly the same to tobacco in terms of how it effects people, what it does, and where it goes?

I never said it was identical, I said it was about as harmful. I never denied the health effects of second hand smoke either, hence why I am pro banning smoking from public buildings. My sole point is that banning smoking in the open air is excessive. The fact that so many people in the US suffer from astma is indeed tragic, especially since asthma triggers are so varied and can differ from person to person.

Cars have decades of research and millions of dollars behind it to create less harmful exhaust. I can imagine that you would have the same problem as tobacco smoke if all the cars still functioned like they did in 1960. Nowadays the combustion is more complete, we have catalysts and probably hundreds of small, but significant advances. Can you think of any such thing for cigarettes?

My problem as I've said is with the gigantic difference in volume between car exhaust and tobacco smoke. While it's true that the former is probably less harmful in the same concentration, there's a lot of more it.

You just said it yourself. The concentration is what matters. Vehicle exhaust is not at all concentrated and dissipates very quickly. Tobacco smoke does not. It is very concentrated, and because of human behaviour, most often smoked in areas screened from the wind which means the smoke lingers for much longer.

In theory cigarettes lower stress levels which could help lower chances for a heart attack.
There are benefits just the dangers outweigh them.

Guys, srsly...

...nobody is making the argument that government IS trying to do some shit about making cars produce less smog/other gas fumes.

It's not like nobody's giving a shit about car exhaust, yet screaming at tobacco.