I found this article at the BBC newspage and thought you all might it interesting: Norway Set to Ban Public Smoking

While the headline is a bit misleading (there is a bill being considered, I don't quite consider that "set"), I did find the very concept worthy of debate.

Do you think the Norwegian restaurant workers' unions are right in lobbying for this total ban? Or do you side with the Norwegian Hospitality Association who argue that their guests should have an option in a country that can see very cold temperatures for a long period of time?

Do you think something like this will ever happen in the U.S.?

If you would like to learn more about Norway, click here

Smoking ban extended until 2006
Source: Badger Herald, 2002-11-20
Author: Melanie Truhn, City Writer

Intro: The Madison Common Council voted 13-7 late Tuesday to pass an ordinance that will ban smoking in restaurants. The ordinance will go into effect Jan. 2, 2006.

There already is a smoking ban in all public buildings here.

I like it.

MT

I am a smoker, and I support public smoking bans. It's a nasty habit, and people should not be forced to inhale someone else's cigarette smoke. There is already one city that I know of in Colorado (Boulder) that has a public smoking ban in effect, and for night-clubs and bars where smoking is more prevalent, they have allowed separate, enclosed smoking rooms, which works quite well.

The fact is that people can choose to smoke or not to smoke, and while it is highly addictive, it is still a choice that people make. They can have dinner and wait an hour to smoke. They can go outside and deal with the cold for five minutes, or they can choose to stay home.

Cyan, I couldn't have said it better. People should be able to go to a restaurant and not have to breath in the smoke from the person in the booth next to them. Restaurants that have smoking/non-smoking areas, is just a joke. . . .like that waist high wall between me and the smokers is really protecting my lungs in any way.

-Kisov

I think Fort Collins also put a ban on public smoking, in November. While I wish smoking was prohibited everywhere in my totalitarian fantasy world, I dont agree with it logically. I think that people have the right to smoke, I just think that I also have the right to breathe semi-clean air, and go into a night club and not smell like cigarettes. Its something I've always hated, I have made the choice not to smoke, but it may as well be non-existant because everywhere I go people are smoking, and my clothes reek of cigarettes. Why do I have to deal with someone else's bad habit?

I think that there should be public smoking areas, and that they should be heavily segregated. Like smoking lobbies in the airport.

In Japan, you can smoke just about anywhere. It was insanity, fast food restraunts with people smoking in them was the biggest shock I think.