The Rights of The 25% of The Population

Palmerston North City Council is in the process of banning Smoking in the Square, Public Parks and CBD.  Auckland Council is in the process of doing the same and no doubts many councils throughout the nation, or even the world, are doing the same.

Ok this seems like a genuine concern for folks that smoking in public places endangers the lives of innocent folks walking past a smoker.  But how serious is smoking to passive smokers in the open air?  Well by the scaremongering plenty serious.

In 2025 this country will be smoke free by legislation.  That's 12 years away.  Smokers will no longer have the right to smoke, in private or in public and that's an admirable choice by 75% of the other New Zealanders that don't smoke.  So 25% of the population will no longer find comfort in their habit.  That's like telling the less than 20% of the population that go to church they can no longer go to church regularly.  800,000 people will be affected by this legislation so that's a biggy.  But back to banning smoking in public areas.  Is it lawful and what are the dangers to non smokers really?

Well as for banning smoking in public areas it can't be lawful.  Smoking is a legal practice as it is not banned and as it is always an outdoor event in public, the dangers are minimal to non smokers, in fact nearly negligible as the smoke is carried away and normally upwards.  The real danger to the general public in built up public areas is not from smoking but from inhaling Carbon Monoxide from car emissions that share the thoroughfares of busy inner city avenues.  Carbon Monoxide does not rise as quickly and levels on footpaths can be dangerous to anyone walking them.  I cringe when I see a mother with a baby or child in a pram walking alongside busy roads, but no one is taking that threat seriously, instead grandstanding their political power against a group that has legal right to smoke in the open air.

If central or local governments want to grandstand so be it, but they have to do it with sensibility and with legal standing.  The Palmerston North City Council does not have the weight of legislation behind them to ban smoking in public areas, just as they have no right to ban the sale of cigarettes.  And if they want to keep their jobs in power they will have to realise that 25% of eligible voters will cast their vote in the negative.

If smoking is banned in the city, so should Religion, Driving Vehicles, and any other "minority" action that many feel uncomfortable with or that poses a greater risk to the general public.