Won't someone think of the children!?
Yesterday's SF Chronicle relates the brave story of one woman's fight to protect the "environment and children".
How? By drafting a law in SF that will outlaw smoking in all recreational areas under the city's management, including parks.
So, I assume there are no littering laws on the books in SF that otherwise would have prevented such an atrocity? The Board of Supervisors vote was 8-3, so there were at least dissenting opinions that expressed worries about the civil liberty issues related to outlawing people participating in an otherwise perfectly legal activity. Right?
Well, not really. Supervisor Jake McGoldrick had other worries:
Others had more personal scores to settle with "Big Smoke":
With a more laws like these, and with all other major problems solved, SF is inching closer to being a true utopia, were people can breathe freely the clean air without fear of harmful, toxic chemicals:
How? By drafting a law in SF that will outlaw smoking in all recreational areas under the city's management, including parks.
"Secondhand smoke outdoors is just as dangerous (as indoors)," said Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier..."Like other young parents, I have had the wonderful experience of a child picking up a cigarette butt off the lawn and popping it in their mouth"
So, I assume there are no littering laws on the books in SF that otherwise would have prevented such an atrocity? The Board of Supervisors vote was 8-3, so there were at least dissenting opinions that expressed worries about the civil liberty issues related to outlawing people participating in an otherwise perfectly legal activity. Right?
Well, not really. Supervisor Jake McGoldrick had other worries:
McGoldrick, who represents the Richmond District, was particularly worried about how the law might disproportionately affect some immigrant communities, including Chinese Mah Jong players at Portsmouth Square who enjoy a cigarette with their game.
Others had more personal scores to settle with "Big Smoke":
Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who lost his mother to a smoking-related illness, said he welcomed the measure, as did Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who is asthmatic.
"I wish, as a child, there had been that incentive, if she was at a playground with me or a park with me, that she had the incentive not to smoke, " Dufty said.
With a more laws like these, and with all other major problems solved, SF is inching closer to being a true utopia, were people can breathe freely the clean air without fear of harmful, toxic chemicals:
Dr. Mitch Katz, who runs the city's Department of Public Health, was thrilled with the vote.
"People are under the misconception that if they are outside, they are not being exposed," he said. "If you can smell the smoke, your body is inhaling the toxic chemicals in the smoke."
Katz said he hopes the law "will result in fewer smokers and fewer people being exposed to smoke."
posted by Zevatron at 1/27/2005 09:09:00 AM
1 Comments:
Firstly, nice job Zevatron. Good points, fabulously made. Yes it is true, every time you smell smoke, that is because particles of cigarette smoke are literally inside you nose. But has it ever occurred to Mr Who that every time you smell a FART that is because some particles of SHIT are inside your nose? I would rather have tiny tar and nicotine molecules inside an orifice than someone else's shit. So following that logic, I think we should ban public farting before public smoking. Also, I would rather my child sucked on an old cigarette butt than a rock or some dogshit, which it is even more likely to find while playing in a sand box. Teach your children not to stick everything they find in their mouths...it's a good lesson. DISCLOSURE: Yes, I am a sporadic smoker.
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