Should bars be able to choose between smoking and non-smoking?

I really think they should. If a non-smoker doesn't want to be around smoke, they should not go to a bar allowing smoking.

Before bar smoking was banned here, I never liked smokey bars, so I knew where I would go and where not to go. Some bars have terrible venting and it is harsh.

Yes, they should be able to decide if they want to allow smoking or not.

I think it should be up to the bar owner. I'm just not sure we need laws for every little thing. It's a bar. No one is dragging kids in & adults can make the choice to just not go. If the smoke is bothersome people can go to a non smoking one. I think both could probably peacefully exist.

I think the laws are OSHA in nature and not for the customer but for the workers who have to live in an unhealthy environment all day. I know, I know they don't have to work in a bar. Ppl don't have to work in coal mines either.

Actually, some ppl have to work wherever they can find work and that is why we need big bad government protecting their health in the workplace. In the '70s I worked in a pizza beer joint in Pittsburgh in the winter. I would turn on the overhead exhaust and torn between the clean freezing air or the unbreathable smoke.

Non-smokers my age remember choking on Greyhound busses and on airplanes and in stores and everywhere else the addicts just had to foul the air. I am really thankful that they finally made a Clean Indoor Air Act here in Florida in the early '90s and the Feds are making workplaces safe from tobacco smoke.

Shale wrote:I think the laws are OSHA in nature and not for the customer but for the workers who have to live in an unhealthy environment all day. I know, I know they don't have to work in a bar. Ppl don't have to work in coal mines either.

Actually, some ppl have to work wherever they can find work and that is why we need big bad government protecting their health in the workplace. In the '70s I worked in a pizza beer joint in Pittsburgh in the winter. I would turn on the overhead exhaust and torn between the clean freezing air or the unbreathable smoke.

Non-smokers my age remember choking on Greyhound busses and on airplanes and in stores and everywhere else the addicts just had to foul the air. I am really thankful that they finally made a Clean Indoor Air Act here in Florida in the early '90s and the Feds are making workplaces safe from tobacco smoke.

Honestly, I had not thought of it from a worker standpoint. That said, I will fall under the umbrella of those touting, "They don't have to work in a smokey bar.."

They don't have to work in a smokey bar. They can work elsewhere. Walking into a tavern that does not serve food is a choice. Choose a smoker bar or a not smoker bar.

Yes they should have that option.

Maybe they should just go back to the smoking and non-smoking sections. Like having peeing and non-peeing sections in a public swimming pool. When our daughter was in Catholic school, I used to have to work bingo once a month. By the time I got home I smelled like a fucking ashtray. This was before the ban on smoking...you know, when it was up to the individual business. If they went non-smoking they would have been out of business in a short time because more than half the people would have went to the bingo hall down the street that still allowed smoking.

Alan Smithee wrote:... If they went non-smoking they would have been out of business in a short time because more than half the people would have went to the bingo hall down the street that still allowed smoking.

As much as I believe the majority of humans are just plain stupid, (especially those who continue to smoke knowing the PROVEN dangers of it) smoking is now down to less than 25% of the adult population (I think teens are in that stat).

So, eventually smokers will become such a minority that we can abuse them like we do other minorities. Drive them out into the cold to smoke, throw water in their face if their smoke drifts onto you, charge them $6 a pack for cigarettes. (Oh, scratch that last one off the list of future indignities)

I think the laws are ridiculous.... owners should get to decide in ANY business!!!! When I worked in JCPenney... we had a smoking break room and a nonsmoking break room... they were totally seperate and there was no way that the smokers bothered us nonsmokers. When the ban passed, the smokers then had to go outside, and a policy was inacted that only one particular area was a "smoking area" outside because they did not want the customers to see all the smokers hanging outside. So it would take someone 10min to walk across the building to get to the door, 10min to walk back... and we only got 15min breaks! So the smokers wound up with longer breaks then the rest because they continued to smoke.

ALSO---think about this: my brother in law has owned a business in phila for 25yrs... now he is not permitted to smoke in his own damn building.... and pays the city of philadelphia a ton of stupid taxes that people do not even think of. He runs an auto body shop... and he pays a quarterly fee for: each garage door of his building, each drive way for the doors, having a fire zone, having a sprinkler system permit, towing licensing for each truck (in addition to normal registration) and it goes on and on and on--- but he cant freaking light a cigarette within his building or within 20ft of his front door without getting fined!!!! WTF????

Wants2, you mention a smoking and non-smoking break room...that reminds me of my first legit job while in high school. It was at a nursing home. The break room accommodated about 12 or so people. It was a pretty small room and smoking was allowed. It was so gross. I remember it was 1993 when they made the smokers smoke outside. The outrage was huge. Smokers were acting as if they were being treated worse than dogs.

They could separate the smokers from the non-smokers. Funny years ago people flocked to bars where people smoked freely all night long and no one complained. Now all of a sudden we have a legion of vigilante's.

RedBedroom wrote:I really think they should. If a non-smoker doesn't want to be around smoke, they should not go to a bar allowing smoking.

Before bar smoking was banned here, I never liked smokey bars, so I knew where I would go and where not to go. Some bars have terrible venting and it is harsh.

YES! Some states, including Oregon, banned it in ALL bars and I think that's wrong. At least give the bars a choice to go all-smoking or all-non-smoking.