Matt, did you open up that spam? I thought we weren't EVER to open any or it would just tip them off and they'd send more.
Both of my parents smoked around me from the time I was a newborn. I had asthma almost right from the start, and have had some very severe bouts of it during my lifetime. And yes, I wish smoking were banned from homes.

That is rotten, Lorna, and I'm sorry to hear the upshot. But how cld. govt. enforce?

Public education (nowadays, at least) can counteract fashion/peer pressure that encourages smoking. Some great, and hard-hitting anti-smoking billboard ads come to mind. There's one I just saw today off Alaskan Way Viaduct, directly targeted against smoking in homes with kids. It shows the lungs of a kid in a home w/ adult smokers, as two huge, (lung-shaped) ashtrays full of butts. The text relates just how many cigs a kid might "smoke" (in equivalent) by inhaling his parents exhaust. Powerful stuff.

What about all those other people who grew up with padres that smoked in the homes, but they never had problems? It is anti-American to ban smoking from private homes or businesses. Like it or not, tobacco products are "legal" meaning businesses or home owners can allow it in their pr they want. To lobby for smoking bans in private businesses and/or homes is big brother type actions. If you don’t want to be around smoking, you do not have to be around smoking. Plain and simple.

I agree that smoking bans in private homes - or for that matter outdoors - would make no sense. As for businesses...Yes, I can just leave; but that's a form of discrimination against non-smokers who cannot bear all the smoke.

I've been there: my wife and I went into the bar of a Mexican restaurant in West Seattle for a drink and the smoke was so thick it was frankly, disgusting. We could barely breathe, and had to leave.

It seeemed not very different from being physically assaulted in some other, illegal, manner.

How about calling it child abuse, then, when a youngster CANNOT leave, and is made very ill by it ? Some lungs CAN tolerate smoke better than others, I suppose, but it is still a nasty, expensive habit, and ought NOT to be inflicted on anyone, especially children.

It is not discrimination to non-smokers to have smoking allowed in a private business. I could say the same for you, your dislike or distaste for smoking is discrimination against smokers and the business owner (s). I think that is a bunk argument. You knew there was smoking allowed in that Mexican restaurants before you sit down, you have the decision to eat there. You could have left, not like there is a shortage of Mexican restaurants.

Lorna, I appreciate your compassion for the children. But, do you realize how many other dangers there are in a home that will harm a child? Do you want the government dictating what is dangerous to your child? Possibly you would like to come up with an initiative that mandate the government place a DHS rep in every home to ensure every child is enclosed in a plastic and sterile bubble? Please, that is silly, expensive and well, frankly traveling down the big brother pattern of thought.