Mayor's proposed ban in city parks could have unexpected health benefit
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comDrought may make it harder for Texas smokers to light up
Seeded on Thu Sep 15, 2011 9:48 AM EDT (msnbc.com)
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There's no need to ban it smokers need to realize the fire threat and be more responsible when discarding a cigarette. Simple enough!
You don't get out much do you ???
It's about time. I'm sick of all of these chain-smoking Marlboro Men, and nasty illegals littering the town with their butts and smoke. Smoking is the nastiest thing. Stinky breath, stinky clothes, stinky houses, stinky cars, funky teeth, and of course the obligatory jonesing and crankiness when they don't get to smoke.
I probably see 5-6 smokers flicking butts out their windows every day on my way to work and again coming home.
Cygnus... Can you please explain the relationship between smoking and illegal immigrants? or is this just another "reason" to attack those different?
Smokers are everywhere, men, women, black, white, brown, native, immigrant, etc, not just Marlboro Men and Illegal Immigrants.
Smoking kills in 1 year more than: Car accidents, murders, AIDS, cancer, drugs, all the wars currently taking place, home & job accidents and drunk drivers COMBINED.
Anyone putting anything but AIR in their lungs is a total idiot...
Oh by the way, when you have zero regard for your body, as apparently demonstrated by smokers, you will not give a @!$%# about littering either... they go hand in hand!
There is not on shred of proof that smoking causes any illness! Every report I have seen is junk science!
Besides fat, ugly, anorexic and narcissist people do you want the tax revenues loss replaced with a different tax like a tax on your stupidity!
What? Smokers keeps telling me how harmless their smoking habit is? Every smoker is always says they never flick their butts out the window so this can't possibly be the start of any fires!
Yes it is only 4 or 5 of them that flick their butts out the window and that accounts for the 1000s of butts in the gutter at every stop light. All of the rest of them are very thoughtful!
Tell the automobile manufacturers to start putting ashtrays in the cars again and maybe smokers will quit flicking their butts out the window so much.
Use a soda cup or paper coffee cup with some water in the bottom like my friend does.
Now smokers will be more anxious about their habit realizing they are being singled out. They will deal with this anxiety by taking extra doses of their calming drug nicotine, by way of smoking more.
Law of Unintended Consequences.
HS,
That's fine just do it in the privacy of your own Home!
To all the antismokers above and below... Let's fight to make smoking tobacco illegal... NOW!
What? Too many interests in the middle? That's government meddling with our freedoms? Big Tobacco sponsors too many politicians?
OK, let's forget about the idea!
I say "Smoke um if you got um" but PLEASE be careful people. Please.....
Just use some common sense..Yeah, common sense. That's rich. Good Luck with that
LOL
I love it.
Common sense of course says smoking will destroy your life.
Therefore smokers lack common sense.
i live in Texas and know for a fact that there's a not-insignificant portion of annual fires that are caused by people flicking butts out the window on the highways...the real issue is the fact that it's easier to have highways without curbs on them, so these butts just roll off the road into the grass (personally I keep my empty packs in the door, flick out the cherry when i'm done and put the butt in the empty pack to be thrown out whenever i stop to get gas next). Basically curbs are the only way you're going to be able to prevent these fires because even if you were to ban smoking in public places, a car is one's personal property and not subject to that law, so unless you're going to set up cameras every X# feet on the road to catch the litterers, so curbs are the way to go...not even normal, residential street sized curbs are necessary, just a couple of inches that will prevent lit cigs from rolling off the road and starting fires
and for the fuddy-duddies that say "OMG how much will that cost?!" I say to them, how much have we lost in the past 2 years in agricultural revenues (taxable income) and property damage? Billions you say?
Dace, even curbs don't help stop the sparks from a flicked cigarette. If you live here, you know that the grass is just tinder waiting to light. I could care less if people smoke inside their property, and keep the butts there. But once they toss that butt because they are too lazy to use an ashtray and then empty it at their own home, it becomes a public issue. The butt holes who toss the cigarettes are not the ones who lose their property, they just keep going. It is the people who worked and slaved to have something, and the innocents in their homes who die (4 so far), their pets and livestock, and the firefighters who give their lives to put them out (2 so far) who pay.
OMG, raising the curbs and 'lowering the bar' for every incorrigible weak link in America? Texas is broke and I'm sure the money could be spent on much more productive stuff. Not on illusionary curbs to contain the burning and non-burning garbage habitually tossed by litter-bugs!
And if 'breaking the law' (reckless behavior) is (allegedly) 'permitted' on private property such as 'in cars', then I guess 'other dangerous habits' like drinking and drugging, texting and having intercourse while driving are as a allowable, just like fumbling around with smouldering 500degree-hot debris?!
Some people go so far to fill up their cars with billowing smoke and have babies in the backseats and act like it's their redneck right!
Most of these fools get away with virtuall every offense in their life, but when the first maliciously-discarded cigarette butt is linked via DNA to the tragic deaths of fire-fighters or others, expect man-slaughter charges, prison terms and restitution!
I say if you flick your butt while driving, you lose your car. The car can be sold at auction and the proceeds can go into a fund to fight wild fires in the future.
Damn good idea.
How 'bout the same rule for all the dumbasses on their cell phones while driving??
While I am at it.... no drivers license, car is gone, no insurance, bye bye car. More proceeds for those who have been damaged by others illegal behavior.
I'd support testing positive for any substance as a DUI, also. And further, add on repeat offenders of dangerous driving.
and also under or non treated diseases, as long as the person is aware of the disease. For example, if a person has diabetes and doesn't follow the medical recommendations and has a wreck. Same thing as DUI.
Of course this person probably talks, texts, and puts makeup on while driving.
How about keep it fair, and take cars away from anyone who breaks the law in any way, shape or form, while driving. That way all you dumb a$$es won't be on the road either.
*yawn* Once again, the rest of the country notices when it happens to Texas. We've been in that mode for months now. :-/
I really don't think the absence of cigarette smoke is going to offset the smoke generated by wildfires in terms of "health benefits." But, that was an amusing opener. Anyone see the photo of the smoke cloud over Chicago that blew in from the relatively small Minnesota wildfire earlier this week? Everybody in Texas would have to take up chain smoking to generate that much smoke from cigarettes!
Shouldn't all littering be banned? Anyway, you can buy a butt bucket at Walmart for $4.00, they extinguish fast...added plus, your car doesn't smell like an ashtray.
Sorry for the triple post, first timer!
Shouldn't all littering be banned? Anyway, you can buy a butt bucket at many stores, they extinguish fast...added plus, your car doesn't smell like an ashtray.
Shouldn't all littering be banned? Anyway, you can buy a butt bucket at many stores, they extinguish fast...added plus, your car doesn't smell like an ashtray.
Everyone I know that smoked switched to e-smoke about a year ago and they still get the fake cough from non-smokers. This country won't be content until there are no smokers left and then it is on to fat people to tax to death and complain about how their second hand body order causes foot fungus or some other illness.
As to the wild fires; it's called an ashtray-even a moron can figure out how to use one.
I couldn't agree more justamom. All the haters of smokers think that once they get their way and smoking is gone that's it but we know it just means lets move on to the next habit we (collective busybody know it alls) do not care for. Do you know the difference between a smoker and a non-smoker? Smokers do not care that you DON'T smoke! I can't wait till they start the whole second hand colonge/perfume cause cancer BS.
I think they are using the wildfires as an excuse to make it seem more like a safety issue than an infringement on people's rights.
Maybe that cologne won't cause cancer but it sure stinks up an airplane. Give me cig smoke any day rather than some fat chick wearing a gallon of cheap perfume.
Justamom and John
But they don't. Do a little research as to the cause of the Texas wildfires. Most are tossed cigarettes. Where I live on on Farm to Market road alone, there were over 25 fires caused by cigarettes tossed out car windows alone. Luckily, these were relatively small, not like the Bastrop or Possum Kingdom Lake fires.
Has anyone tried to start a fire with a cigarette? It is virtually impossible (don't care what the newspapers say). I've had a Fire Chief and a Fire Captain both tell me that most fires which are attributed to cigarettes are unknown as to the cause for the source, it just sounds better to have an identifiable source.
I have tried to start fires with a cigarette while out camping. The most I ever got was some few seconds of smoldering and never a fire. Think about it, a cigarette butt tossed from a vehicle moving at 45 to 70 mph, falling far enough off the road to land in dry kindling, just right for the low temperature cigarette to ignite and then spread.
Both the Fire Chief and Captain said that most fires result from campfires or lightening and that is true even for those that they can't trace the source. Both of these people have been firefighters for over 20 years each (one in AZ and the other in CA).
Either you did not understand them or they are just plain ignorant.
From Australia.
There are cigarettes that are less likely to start a fire, they called "fire safe" cigarettes.
Even then it is not a guarantee that it will stop a fire.
At the end of this report there is mention of a woman who died and her cigarette caused a house fire.
Apparently she either died and caused the fire, or the fire caused her death.
It is pretty clear when a sofa burns that it was not a campfire or lightening.
For goodness sakes you can start a fire by rubbing two sticks together.
I've thrown a cigarette into a basket with dry toilet paper... there was no fire... granted, it's not a sofa... i wonder how they are able to determine that a cigarette caused the fire...
Evidence is found and analyzed. Certainly not my field but filters don't burn all that well.
Plus not everyone in a fire dies. Not uncommon for the one smoking to say, "I was smoking and fell asleep".
If the source is a sofa or bed it is a pretty easy deduction to make.
You can generate a lot of heat by rubbing two girl scouts together.
I don't think the fires in Texas were caused by a couch igniting from a cigarette. We are talking about forest/wild fires I thought.
Bruce if you can light a sofa on fire you can light that super dry tinder on the side of the road on fire.
Before butane lighters, matches, or even cigarettes, man has been starting fires with friction or a small spark - just as long as some of that dry tinder is available.
The govt. wants you to smoke. O sure they'll impose a bunch of rules and act like they care, but what is the first tax they raise in times of trouble? Tobacco!
GOOD!
Smokers just keep getting the shaft. Cant even smoke outside anymore! What is the world coming too!
Hopefully a little less imprisoned.
Meanwhile a bunch of non smokers (the tobacco executives) will hopefully make less money by selling death to their slaves (the smokers).
Lola, the majority of the fires in Texas this summer have been caused by smokers carelessly tossing their cigarette butts. These "smokers getting the shaft" have caused 6 deaths and over a billion dollars in damage because of their "rights".
Deb: I guess smoking in your house caused your re t a rd a tion.
That's funny Deb, because the NEWS said most of the fires in Tx were caused by forces of nature, didn't know smoking was a force of nature.
Since smoking is now a force of nature, I think it is wrong to ban it.
No.. YOU are coming to an end.
proamerica-1148973, you are suspended for a day for violating rule # 1 of the Code of Honor.
With this drought showing no end in sight, I don't blame them for being overtly careful. I sure wouldn't want my house to be going up in smoke either.
People tend to get cautious when lots of bad things start happening. It's natural. That's why we have added security at the airports after someone tries something and why people throw out ALL of their peanut butter when only one brand gets recalled. Being cautious is something that we're good at.
In Texas the problem isn't smoking, it's the liberals.
It's ALWAYS the liberals.
In Texas, the problem isn't the Liberals...it's the Texans.
Why should smokers be singled out by the cigarette smoke Nazis......most smokers are quite aware and responsible with their butts........why don't all these busybodies become allergic to illegal aliens and start whining about them .......
You have answered your own question: ..."most smokers are quite aware and resopnsible with their butts"...
Your "smoke nazis" are not after them. Got it?
Duh.. because YOU ARE THE SMOKER! Buy a gun and use it, it's easier.
It might be a good thing until the drought ends because of fire risk.
You can still walk down the street and smoke. There is just usually more flammable material in parks for burning ashes to land on. And frequently parks are near buildings in Houston.
God may be punishing the Texas for electing Rick Perry.
Texas just lately has had more in common with Hell than most are comfortable with. He prayed for rain and now the whole damn state is on fire.
Yeah, even as a liberal I'd say that a temporary ban is in order. Set the ban to expire in December.
Muslim Terrorist are starting these fires. They want all of the United States to burn. They want to destroy us anyway they can.
And they're all disguised as cigarettes... i'm doing my patriotic duty by smoking as many of them as i can find.... DAMN YOU TERRORISTS!!!!
troll alert
Well, I'm a smoker, and I use my ashtray in my car, all littering should carry heavy fines. As for the people that run up and plop their butts down next to smokers, and have the nerve to bitch about the smoke, just your perish a$$ up and go back were you came from. Don't like the smell of smoke off my cloths, shove your head back up you self-center a$$, I sure that smells much better. And don't worry about my house smelling like smoke, I don't allow self-righteous bigots on my property to begin with.
Want to keep your kids from smoking, stop you self-righteous preaching, and they won't look for drugs to dieing the full of bullsh!t coming from you!
Smoking in your car SHOULD be illegal just like cell phones.
Whips that's a good one. I like you am a smoker and I hear the same comments about smelling like smoke, Well I'm here to tell you my olfactories are a lot better off smelling smoke the the Body Odor coming from these self righteous non-smokers who by the way are mostly obese people that forgot how to use soap. Not to mention the terrible halitosis attributed to their coffee drinking and poor oral hygiene. So don't worry about how I smell smoke or otherwise because you may think you can breathe better but i can still smell the Funk coming off your nasty AZZ.
So this ban is REALLY about anti-smoking...not wildfires.
Well...let Texas burn. If it's God's will...then there's nothing else to be done.
Isn't a gun just easier if you're going to kill yourself?... Ban smoking in parks... ban it while driving (cell phones are already banned!), ban it in ALL PUBLIC PLACES including bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, etc... and yes, even on the PUBLIC sidewalks! If you get caught, it's an automatic $1000 fine.
I second that :)
I say if you wear to much perfume/calone, or if you dont take a shower or ....... or are considered fat, or .......... or if you dang, I hate the smell of coffee, you should be fined for making me put up with the smell of it, then you should be fined.
Think of others and what they do also that is considered annoying before picking on one.
Maybe you should stay in your house, it to dangerous out in the real world for you. All the germs from sick people on the streets are more likely to kill you then second hand smoke, but they don't report on that.
outlaw cars, they are polluting the air we breath, and shut down all factories again...... Everyone should walk or ride a bike were they need to go so we dont force people to breath that polution or should be fined every day they dont.
No need to outlaw cars. Just force car companies to dump most of their profits into developing electric or hydrogen technology. In the meantime, buy a hybrid, like my family is going to do when our current vehicle reaches the end of the line. A lot of companies, factories, schools and about 90% of our street lights out here in Jersey have installed or are installing solar panels (my home included) to save money on electric bills and rely less on fossil fuels. Tell your local legislatures to pass tax incentives to get folks and businesses in your area to do the same. You can thank us later for reducing the amount of pollution you breathe.
thankfully governor Perry cut funding for firefighters before raising our taxes. I'm sure Exxon got their cut...
I say make it illegal to smoke, then the taxes will go up because all the money they make on the sin tax will be gone. Then dont forget about all the jobs that go away, so now we are at 10% unemployment. Then as people say, less will get sick, so then we can fire some nurses and doctors, dang, it just keeps getting better. Then dont forget, people live longer, will keep their jobs longer, younger people cant get jobs, more food is needed to support the bigger population, and it goes on and on and on.
Come on people, we know we want higher unemployment and more taxes <sarcasm end> This all leads to giving up our freedoms and yall are begging for it.