Didymus wrote:
Don't like the cockroaches crawling on your steak?
Eat Somewhere Else!
Don't like that I don't wash my hands before making your salad?
Eat Somewhere Else!
My point: restaurants are under moral and legal obligation to mind health issues within their working environment. Smoking falls within that category.
Actually, if I don't like cockroaches crawling on my steak, I WILL eat somewhere else, and that's my point. Health and safety inspections can stay, and simply post the detailed findings on the premises where everybody can easily see them. Most sane people will not eat at a restaurant with violations such as those you posted above. The restaurant owner will then clean up his act, or go out of business. Simple as that. No need to force him to close or fine him. And what about certain ethnic foods that are prepared in ways that do not meet with United States health standards? Are they not allowed to serve the immigrant populations that want to eat in restaurants that serve food the way they want it.
Back to the smoking issue. If a man opens a restaurant and decides he will allow smoking, that is his choice. It is also the choice of anybody who decides to eat and work there. If people keep coming into his smoke-filled restaurant, then apparently they are ok with breathing in second-hand smoke. Or first hand smoke. Those are the people he wants to serve. If the man finds that it is impossible to hire enough employees who will work in a smokey environment, or if the customers just aren't coming into his restaurant because they don't like the smoke, he will either change the policy on his own, or he will go out of business. And to the non-smokers who worry about not being able to eat anywhere, don't worry. Because of the anti-smoking atmosphere we are living in right now, there will be many many restaurants that choose to have NO SMOKING policies to attract the crowds that dislike the smoke. I would probably frequent those establishments myself. Cigarette smoke gives me a major headache and irritates my nose and lungs in a way that is more than an annoyance.
We know enough about cigarette smoke that people should be allowed to make their own decisions whether or not they expose themselves to that. I don't believe the government should be making our private decisions for us.