People want this. Do it. Do it now.

You folks in H’burg understand why people think you are a bunch of clowns?

Pilt

Our unconscionable, cowardly, antediluvian PA Senate caved in to Big Interests. First, they gutted the bill banning smoking in workplaces by including innumerable exemptions to cater to Big Interests. The House then considered the Senate’s sham of a Clean Indoor Air Bill. The House rightfully removed almost all exemptions. Unfortunately, when the amended bill returned to the Senate for concurrence, the Senate rejected the amended bill. Since the Senate is recessing for its summer vacation, a committee of Senators and Representatives will be formed to try to reach a consensus in the fall. While our legislators enjoy their vacations, more and more folks will die due to second-hand smoke. This is what I think of our spineless legislators: @#$%^&*())_+

I agree second hand smoke may cause problems. When I smoked I didn’t do it in my home or at work, I went outside. That being said if tobacco is that dangerous why is it legal? I don’t see a problem with the owner of a bar or restaurant setting up an area to cater to their smoking clientelle as long as there is no risk to the non-smokers. A separate area with smoke filters works fine. Many establishments already have done this.

With the current law it is either the government’s way or the highway. That isn’t right either. The most idiotic part of the smoking ban is the ban in cigar stores. Come on who else goes into those places except smokers. The anti-smoking fanatics need to apply a little common sense.

Leave it to the business owner if he/she wants to allow smoking in their bar/rest. The vast majority of alcohol drinkers also smoke cig’s. Dont believe me? Go to your local bar and do a survey! This is a backdoor attempt to kill off bars! Bad Legislation – go away and mind your own business! Get to work on lowering our taxes and cutting spending!

I can speak first hand as to how misguided this law is. The NJ smoking ban literally bankrupted and closed hundreds of privately owned bars and restaurants. Revenue is down by double digits across the board on the ones that did survive. The law hasn’t caused people to stop smoking, but it has caused them to stay home more often and that if killing the bar and restaurant trade, especially with cold weather coming. The NJ casino’s have lost hundreds of millions of dollars of business. Do you know where it went? To your casinos where there are no smoking laws. If you ban smoking do you know what happens? You too will lose millions and millions of revenue for your property tax relief. Regardless of your feelings on smoking, a wide ranging ban will adversely affect both smoker and non alike. The facts speak for themselves. Use your head, people.

It’s not novel to attack the ban from an economic perspective, but it’s predictable. Save your breath. The ban will pass eventually. The writing is on the wall.

Companies are beginning to stop hiring smokers, and insurance companies are hiking premiums on smokers, or dropping coverage on them.

We’ll all be better off for it.

I think the lawmakers are pushing this bill under the rug. I think this ban is good for all. As far as NJ losing business from the smoking ban there that is just a bunch of hoowwie. In fla they passed a bill such as this and the business in rest and bars has increased. Just check it out. WE NEED THIS BILL PASSED NOW...

I agree but someone should take a look at how much money the tobacco company blows into our state capitol, it stinks as much as stale cigarette smoke.

To the politicians in Pa. please pass a smoking ban in pa especially include banning smoking in work places and all public places. No exceptions,the smokers can smoke outside.Non-smokers have rights too. By not banning smoking it is inhibiting non-smokers to live a healthier life.

I own a Restaurant/Bar and I want the Legislation
to pass immediatly. I go home coughing every night
from second hand smoke. I also owned a Restaurant
in New York State when the law passed there. Besides
the grumbling from smokers, business was not affected. Please, I beg you to PASS the law.

My family and I moved to PA from NY 4 years ago to improve our lifestyle. While the move has had many of the benfits we hoped for – better school, lower taxes, more wide open spaces, less crowding – our lungs wish we would move back to NY! I miss being able to go out with friends and have a few drinks without feeling like I’ve been rolling in an ashtray. My asthmatic lungs force me to stay in when I’d rather take my family to the family-run Italian restaurant up the street (not that I’d expose my healthy kids to that kind of air poluution anyway). Bars and restaurants in NY quickly realized all the money they were missing from the people who weren’t eating/drinking at their establishments because of the smoke, and the bars and restaurants of PA will realize the same thing once this ban passes. Those who claim that restaurants and bars will lose money over this ban are just lying, it hasn’t happened in any location that has enacted a ban. PLEASE PA – catch up with the rest of the country and protect our lungs from this air pollution!!!

To begin with this is what It’s all about lowering health care costs. Now that’s a joke my health care has increased every year for the last 5years for a total increase of an extra 200.00 a month my prescriptions co-pays have increased 150%. Now your going to lower that I think not it’s all political B.S! And to the fanatics against smoking if you work in a place there’s smoking and you don’t like it find another job! I was in the service and we fight for freedom and why in Gods name does everyone want to take those freedoms away. And if your wondering I’m A NonSmoker.So there!

In the end, it’s a public safety issue. The powers that be understood that they needed to do something about smokestack pollution in Pittsburgh 50 years ago. Their ground-breaking “renaissance” literally helped clear the air and make the city a much more livable place.

Fast forward. From where I sit, smoking is nothing more or less than a form of pollution, except in this case, it is perpetrated upon fellow citizens on a one-on-one basis. And I don’t think those people have any more right to pollute than does a major manufacturer.

Unlike drinking, (another popular vice!) smoking DOES effect others in its proximity. Drinking does not. (I’ll grant you the downside of auto related fatalities)

So the bottom line is that we, as a society, have a moral obligation to set this straight. To move forward. To, basically, grow up!

We know how harmful smoking is. We know it has absolutely no redeeming social value and I for one think that the social movement against it is quite remarkable. It actually makes me proud.

It’s time to get this done in our backward state. With all the millions businesses spend trying to convince people to relocate to PA, it’s stuff like this that hurts our image….just like the brown skies of Pittsburgh did before David Lawrence decided to kick some butt!

Piltdown Man

Indeed. Restaurants are for eating and bars are for drinking. Those that must smoke can surely hold off for a few hours while they do either of the above activities. I do believe the passage of a smoking ban is not going to hurt any bar or restaurant for the simple reason that no one is going to stop drinking or eating if they can’t smoke. Alcohol and pork chops will win out over smoking anytime. Now isn’t that a delightful portrait of our population.
JP

to a point. The fact is that there are people who smoke, and who like to hang out and drink with other people who smoke at bars. In a Free and Civilized society, there should be choice. If I as a bar owner, want to cater to those that smoke, I should be able to open a smoker’s bar – stating clearly that smoking is allowed, and that if you do not smoke, you do not have to come in. That’s fair.

-C

What is happening to My Country? The Country I served, ready to give my life for in the Military. What’s happening to the Constitution? Why are so many so Hell bent about restricting the very freedoms we say we’re all about? Millions in prison – many for simply using drugs. We’ve got our priorities all messed up. Gun violence is raging in our City – and it’s not about drugs – they’re just the symptom – it’s about commerce, control and money. We have to come to grips that every problem does not require that we ‘Wage A War’ against it. It might just require tolerance, knowledge, and understanding, and a helping hand once in a while – not a foot in the face while the less fortunate of us is down.

If drugs were legalized, and controlled – like cigarettes and alcohol – the gun violence would subside, and the prison population would diminish, and we would realize that these substances are awful, addictive wreckers of our lives, and that we should find ways to help those afflicted and teach our children the dangers of them – not point our crooked fingers in disdain and hate.

But then again, how would we fund our covert ops?

How do you control smething that is making millions, no billions, for those that traffic. Simply because that US wants to control drugs doesn’t mean everything will be fine. All those that make their fortunes in drugs are not going to share with the US government. And how do you limit the use of drugs down to an “acceptable” level? If restricting drugs is possible, than do it now. Why would legalization change that? The most powerful weapon we have against drugs is education and that must start in the home and on the playground. The source of drugs must also be addressed, but it is difficult since most come from outside the US where control is basically nonexistant. A good example of hitting the source is the Allied war plan in Europe during WWII. Germany was bombing the hell out of London and had the most mechanized army in the field. Rather than wait in London and try to shoot down bombers or stand in a defensive line and try to stop a division of Tiger tanks, the Allies went to the source and bombed the very plants that produced the armaments that made the German army so powerful. It took time, but in the end destroying Berlin’s production capabilities is what won the war. Destroying the drug production capabilities coupled with education in the streets is key to solving the drug problem. Whatever all this had to do with banning smoking is beyond me.
JP

Philadelphia did it and there way behind the rest of the county . Tell me whats wrong with the guys in H’burg, It’s A no braner

It’s terrible and unfair to smokers. They should have seperate areas like how it used to be. Little by little the things we like to do are being taken away a little bit at a time so people wont notice. It’s not right to treat smokers like second class citizens. It was the same way in the 60’s. Blacks were seperated from whites. No smokers are being seperated from non-smokers. It is wrong. Making people stand outside in the rain to smoke is wrong. I honestly dont know who comes up with these ideas. They banned smoking in the casinos here you can only smoke in certain areas. The place is still smoky and everyone ignores the ban. People smoke where they want and nobody seems to care. Everyone is fine with it and I never saw one person complain. They obviously didnt vote for this. It just isnt right people need to smoke and making them go outside in bad weather just because they need to smoke makes those people feel like theyre not equal to everyone else. Non-smokers dont understand how much smokers need to smoke. It is as hard to quit smoking as it is to quit heroin and when you need to smoke and cant, you get terrible chest pains, you cant breathe, think or concentrate and your heart beats faster and some people are actually brought to tears. It’s not so terrible for someone to smoke around you, Im sure it wouldnt be the first time someone smoked around you and Im sure it wont be the last.