Norway set to ban public smoking
While I am normally against sweeping government bans aimed at personal behaviors, I'm going to stand up and applaud the Norwegian government. Conservatives will decry the degrading of personal freedom, Liberals will celebrate the recognition of the rights of nonsmokers. Honestly, they're both right. There is no win-win position on this issue. Someone is going to have to lose here, and to my way of thinking, it had best be smokers and tobacco companies. Here's why:
- This is not a matter of personal liberty as much as it is a matter of my right to breathe unpolluted air. I choose to breathe clean air. Otherwise, why wouldn't I just go out to the driveway, wrap my lips around the exhaust pipe of my truck, and inhale? I do not want to breathe cigarette smoke, I do not want to be exposed to it, and I especially don't want to smell like it.
- All of us pay for the medical care incurred by smokers, which means that all of us, smokers and nonsmokers, have a stake. Personally, I do not want to be helping to foot the bill for someone else's addiction issues.
- Secondhand smoke is a very real health concern. I grew up with a father who smoked, and for most of my first 18 years, everytime he smoked a cigarette I got to smoke it the second time around. I can't sit here and testify to any long-term health effects, but you can't tell me that breathing second-hand tobacco smoke for 18 years is harmless.
- The tobacco industry is based on the fostering of addiction to their products. Without the power of addiction, does anyone really think that the tobacco industry would be the behemoth that it is today? Big tobacco is in the business of selling addiction, cancer, and death. How can anyone possibly defend that?
- Tobacco addiction hits the poorer classes particularly hard. During my time in Kosovo, I continually encountered families who did not have the money to feed themselves and their children, but they always had plenty of money for cigarettes. The same holds true among the poor in this country. If this isn't an indication of Big Tobacco's predatory marketing practices, I don't know what is.
- In order to create new markets and nurture existing ones, Big Tobacco's marketing efforts are increasingly aimed at younger and younger audiences. This is particularly true in Third World countries. In Kosovo, it is not uncommon to see eight- and nine-year-olds smoking, and in some cases chain-smoking. In larger cities like Pristina, you will also see very young children selling cigarettes on street corners late into the night.
- Faced with an increase in obstacles in North America, Big Tobacco is taking it's lethal products overseas, where it can sell it's wares with a minimum of inconvenience. Anyone who has ever travelled through Eastern Europe will be able to attest to this. In all parts of the former Yugoslavia, for example, smoking has become the national sport. The awareness of public health issues is minimal in Third World countries, and funding even moreso.
Of course, the first question is going to be "What about alcohol? Fatty foods? Cholesterol? What about people who refuse to exercise?", etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.... Indeed, I would grant that those are valid points, but none of them are as pervasive and divisive as cigarettes. This country has long been in denial about the impact and effects of alcohol, and as long as that continues, there is no point is even pursuing that issue.
There are those out there will be be struck with the desire to deconstruct my arguments point by point. I'll save y'all the trouble. I know this is not a perfect argument, and perhaps not even a very good one. It is, however, valid, even with all of it's holes. So, before you start throwing questions like "When will we outlaw cheeseburgers?" at me, let's get real. A smoker's right to smoke does not trump my right to breathe clean air. Period. If that means we marginalize smokers, well so be it. Remember, it's not the person, it's the behavior.
What I'm saying is that what the Norwegian government is planning should be applauded. It's just a matter of time before this country heads in that direction. Remember, it wasn't so very long ago when people could smoke in the workplace. Smoking is quickly, and deservedly, becoming a pariah, and I for one applaud it. Perhaps in my lifetime, I will finally see cigarettes pushed to the margins of civilized existence and beyond. Now, THAT would be a great day.
