Smoke-free GF marks one year
August 15, 2011 at 5:20 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Anti-tobacco group releases study on air quality improvement
Anti-tobacco activists in Grand Forks celebrated the first anniversary of the ban on smoking in bars and truck stops Monday with the release of a study that shows the ban has made a difference.
Continue Reading
Sorry, but I lost all respect for ANY info the non-smoker groups put out. While I’ve never ever smoked a single cigarette in my entire life, I’ve found you can’t believe any stats these people put out. My father smoked most of his adult life. He recently passed away due to advanced stages of prostrate cancer. He was 77. In looking at his death certificate it lists smoking as one of the causes. Didn’t think much of it, except at the funeral all my uncles tell me that every single one of them have prostrate cancer and most never ever smoked. They told me it runs in the family. Problem is that I didn’t see “heredity prostrate cancer” as the cause. It was smoking. What a farce!!! So, next time you read a smoking related death/health issues stat. DO NOT BELIEVE IT!!!
Hot debate. What do you think?
32 
38
Rick you are so right about the statistics the anti-smoking crowd puts out. Here is a link that looks at their numbers and shows how false they are.
http://heartland.org/policy-documents/lies-damned-lies-400000-smoking-related-deaths?Email=yes
Of course a rebutal:
http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.498/pub_detail.asp
A rebutal to the rebutal:
http://www.forces.org/evidence/files/marim2.htm
Since the ban was passed I wonder what happened to all the people who said they would go to the bars if there was no smoking? Business should be booming for all the bars. Guess what folks. It is not.
Hot debate. What do you think?
30 
31
sooo.. smoking doesn’t kill?? smoking doesn’t release particulates? cigarette smoke isn’t a carcinogen? the economists must have all the health care states wrong too, huh?
Good work Rick, put together a rational thought before you hit Submit.
Hot debate. What do you think?
38 
27
Eventually, the anti-smoking laws will prove to be simply the camel’s nose under the tent. Once government exerts hegemony over private business, other anti groups will seek to have their whims satisfied. So menus will be next: no red meat served, no heavy sauces, no butter. And, of course, no salt on the table. This to appease the diet fanatics. No soft drinks served. Then no liquor. Sound like a fantasy? Perhaps. But once the government gets a precedence for expanding its power, it explots it. Remember when bottle rockets were legal?
Hot debate. What do you think?
29 
37
The government you speak of is made up of representatives we send to govern and to make laws that protect us all. If you don’t like those laws, you need to vote for someone else. Government is us. If your real problem is that you disagree with reasonable people, then you need to work on acceptance.
Hot debate. What do you think?
20 
14
On paper, that makes sense, but most politicians forget the public mandate and vote for their own purposes.
Like or Dislike:
5 
0
Gene, I grew up with a father that smoked. For most of my early years he smoked in the house and in the cars. I suffered through that time. Whether it has caused lasting negative health effects remains to be seen. I don’t really care. I DO know that I have hated second-hand smoke all of my life and AM sick and tired of people ranting about an invasive, controlling government that prevents them from being inconsiderate and blowing their smoke in my face. If people want to smoke, they can do it outside.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
36 
9
I agree Glenn. I also grew up with a farther who smoked. I’ve always contended that I’ve been smoking since birth. It’s a gross and nasty and others shouldn’t have to be subjected to it, especially in eating establishments.You were smart never to start smoking. I wasn’t and have already quit and restarted 3 times. I don’t try to quit because I want to. I enjoy smoking. I try to quit because it’s expensive, there’s associated health risks, and dispite tabacco being a legal substance, the use of it is becoming more and more socially unacceptable. So I’ll keep trying to stop smoking.
When I do people won’t be able to hate me because I’m a smoker; they’ll can hate me because I’m fat.
Like or Dislike:
5 
1
Gene, that is nonsense. This was a workplace safety issue — and nobody is going to force waiters to eat the food they serve.
Those students who had to take bar jobs to earn the tuition money to take your UND class were some of those who suffered until the law was passed. Why didn’t you think of them?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
27 
8
Just wait until the government forces you into a gay marriage, Gene. You’ll have to take off your tinfoil hat and put on a bridal veil!
Like or Dislike:
13 
7
And you wont be able to fend off a shot gun wedding because the Government will take your guns away at the same time as they force you into a gay wedding….”Oh…The humanity”
Like or Dislike:
6 
7
I could care less about the statistics, I just know that whenever I happen to go to a bar that I am estatic that I can now breathe freely and not leave becuz I have a headache from either breathing the smoke or holding my breath and breathing through my mouth to avoid the smoke. And who can complain about not having to go home reeking of smoke? The only negative is that this law should have been in place a long, long, long time ago.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
50 
22
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
22 
39
Not everyone has to stop rob, only the people who are smoking…and they can still smoke..elsewhere.
the 3rd hand smoke carcinogens are still there though, that’s a bummer huh? so it’s not self-indulgent..I’d say self-respect
Hot debate. What do you think?
28 
17
Hmmm, it makes me self indulgent to want to breathe clean air? Yep, I’m one of those spoiled people, I guess. Really, rob????
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
38 
17
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
19 
35
As I said, it’s the camel’s nose. If you knew there was a smoking establishment, you had the choice not to frequent it. But no, your wants superceded the authpority an owner exerises over his business. What do you all think of the NLRB telling Boeing it can’t open a factory in South Carolina or the EPA telling you what lightbulbs you can use? Same principle.
Like or Dislike:
4 
10
I gave up the one thing that I loved and was good at because of cigarette smoke: Performing music. So I was forced into employment that I was not good at and, frankly, unfulfilling. I applaud any law that reduced cigarette smoking and even look forward to the day when I don’t have to breathe it at an open air event, like a county fair. And I challenge our legislators to pass laws that make it illegal for adults to smoke in the presence of minors, especially in the home and car. Peace and good health to all!
Like or Dislike:
14 
6
I hate to be that science guy….well actually i love it, but we know too much to not do these bans (at the very least). Yes i would love to not have anyone smoke. I’m responsible for making a college campus tobacco-free..are you mad at me? cause all I care about is in 50 years a grandkid will have a grandpa because he didn’t have to walk through clouds of smoke or it was too inconvenient to keep smoking.
GF and North Dakota have a LONG way to go but it is soo nice to know that things are moving along!
Hot debate. What do you think?
29 
20
I have to laugh at the sky is falling, government overstepping its bounds comments. That’s what people always resort to when 99% of all the professionals that are experts on the topic (in this case, physicians, in the case of climate change, climate scientists) are in consensus with each other. I wish I too could get the downlow on all these grand worldwide conspiracies.
Hot debate. What do you think?
25 
12
Dave, the “government” is us. I am over 60 and have waited a long time for us non-smokers to be treated with respect. Perhaps smokers at one time didn’t realize how disrespectful and inconsiderate they were by smoking around others and forcing us to breath polluted air…or burning our children when the lit cigarettes in their hands were held at a child’s face level in the commons area near the high school gym. Smokers had their chance. Had they had any consideration for others they would not have smoked inside a building. They blew it…and then some have the audacity to complain about “government” (the rest of us) infringing on THEIR rights. One wonders whether they are opposed to the intrusive government passing anti-litter laws too. Laws against smoking and littering shouldn’t be necessary. They become necessary when people finally say, “Enough is enough!”
Hot debate. What do you think?
21 
11
Does anyone know if the smoking ban has hurt any of the bars in town?
Like or Dislike:
9 
0
It’s practically a moot point now days. The smoking population continues to shrink between the extreme high cost for smokes ($100 per carton on sale….Are you kidding me?) and the general outcast status smokers move in to if they continue smoking around non smokers. The tide changed a long time ago and that’s why the restrictions were able to get in place and enforced.
Regarding growds of non smokers going into resturants and bars since the restrictions….I don’t go to bars so I don’t know about them, but obviously the resturants…Including truck stops have been doing pretty good. Every once in a while I’ll go into a truck stop down south that still allows smoking and it’s sort of like going into that bar scene in Star Wars….It just seems really odd….On the other hand if they keep smoking they just might start looking like the creatures in that bar too….
What always amazes me is that many of these staunch smoking supporters are usually completely against decriminalizing drugs…even pot…..Yet find any restrictions on the most lethal drug of them all they scream to high heaven that government has no rights….The only reason tobacco hasn’t been outlawed as a dangerous drug is because of a powerful tobacco lobby and supplements to growers. But if other drugs are illegal because they’re considered dangerous, then tobacco should have been on that list decades ago….
Like or Dislike:
13 
13
Do you have alcohol on your list? Should that be outlawed? I imagine it has powerful lobbiesta and supplements to growers. It also has a number of negative consequences that cost taxpayers billions. I don’t drink. I don’t like the smell or taste of it and I certainly don’t like the way it impares people’s judgement. Why should I have to put up with the the possibility of an encounter with an impaired driver on the road. Maybe we ought to outlaw booze too. Oh wait, the government tried that already. Didn’t work. Don’t imagine that will happen again any time soon.
Like or Dislike:
3 
5
If booze and tobacco are legal than pot should be also. I don’t use any of them so if they were gone it wouldn’t effect me…But of the three only two would have an adverse effect on me in a closed space like a resturant and that’s not the booze…Unless someone threw a picture of beer on me…..On the other hand of the two smog makers only one provides the possibility of a contact high besides the putrid stench of smoke so once again…tobacco comes out as the worse offender as far as I’m concerned…
Like or Dislike:
5 
2
I’m won’t argue with that. Decriminalize the stuff then tax the hell out of it just like booze and cigarettes.
Like or Dislike:
5 
0