Florida: Complaints over restaurants not complying with smoking ban

First Coast News ^

[SheLion]

DUVAL COUNTY, FL -- Florida's smoking ban was officially put into place on July 1st but not everyone is abiding. The state has had close to 800 complaints on restaurants that are not complying with the rules.

In Duval County, there have been 19 complaints with the majority coming from customers of RP McMurphy's located in Jacksonville Beach. The restaurant has received a warning and has 30 days to comply.

[VRWC_minion]

Why don't we just eliminate the free market all together? Oh, yea, that would be communist.....

I'm describing to you what the market DID and is doing. The big chains apparently found its more profitable to go nonsmoking so long as the smoker has no other choices but to eat nonsmoking. This part of the market is using the the anti's group and the employee health group to force the bans.

Like it or not, the market is working, its just not working the way you want it to.

[metesky]

This fits you to a T:

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

[Steely Glint]

More hyperbole. Buy a clue somewhere.

Cigarette smoke contains Carbon Monoxide and over 200 toxins that we KNOW of. Plus 40-odd carcinogens.

"Do you know what's really in cigarette smoke? How about 4,700 different chemical, including 200 known toxins and 40 known carcinogens (cancer causing substances). A few of these include formaldehyde, cyanide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, benzene, pyridine, cadmium, radon, lead, bismuth, and nitrogen oxides. Concentrations of some of these substances are increased in Second Hand Smoke; twice the amount of tars and nicotine, and three times the amount of carbon monoxide." - from asthma.about.com

There is no argument among the scientific or medical communities about the fact that smoking is a health hazard - at least not by anyone not on the payroll of a tobacco company.

[cherinfl]

I agree that Florida voters voted this ridiculous law in, however, you have no idea what the word "FREE" means!!!
I do not have a problem with voting booths if people are given the true facts before they vote. They weren't given the facts and alot of them are now sorry they voted for it.I bet you are one of those people that hardly ever go out to eat!! People voted on this and then the legislators changed the wording!! So those FREE people of Florida that you are talking about don't exist!!!
Remember how on the ballot clubs were suppose to be exempt? Well guess what, they are not!! There was a federal lawsuit filed before the legislators actually wrote the law. They caved in because they knew if it went federal they would loose! So now all those workers who work in tobacco shops, etc. are not considered worthy enough of the law!! You talk about free people and voting booths, you need to do a little more research before you open your mouth!!!

[Just another Joe]

You really need to learn some chemistry before you post nonsense like that.

I notice you don't refute any of it.

Or could it be that the dose DOES make the poison?

[VRWC_minion]

Once again, don't come running with your sanctimonious BS about "Caring for the little guy".

I'm lucky. I can both care for the little guy and have smoke free environment. However, the smoker cannot and will not. They just could care less that the waitstaff is forced to breathe the smoke. Their only answer is "so what", "get another job". Talk about selfish and rude.

[shattered]

Excuse me, Newbie.......but if your going to be on our Threads in Free Republic you had better learn that we are for the rights of the Business Owners. This should be up to the business owner and NOT the Government.

In your opinion, right?

And whose threads are 'our threads' and how long to you have to be at FR to be 'on' them?

[Steely Glint]

What CSM and the other addicts haven't figured out yet is that the increased anti-tobacco regulations are indeed the direct result of market forces at work. 78% of Americans don't smoke, and most of those don't care to be polluted with smoke...and that 78% not only votes, it also goes to restaraunts and bars, preferably ones where smoking is forbidden.

[SheLion]

You addicts need to find a real argument somewhere. Arguing that cigarette smoke isn't harmful or that public health codes are somehow socialist is just too dumb for words.

Tobacco and smoking have been around for hundreds of years. If it was such a killer and so bad for everyone, don't you think they would have banned it and pulled it off of the market years ago? Why don't you go for banning it instead of coming in here and trashing decent people who choose to use a legal commodity? Maybe then we would listen to you.

Just think of all the tax structures across the U.S. that would have to be redone if tobacco were no longer allowed. Then maybe YOUR pocket book would really be hit hard. I would LIKE that.

[VRWC_minion]

Or could it be that the dose DOES make the poison?

Which varies by person.

[Madame Dufarge]

That works in the bar but not the restaurant.

Read carefully, the words aren't that big.

After-dinner drinks are usually associated with a restaurant, not a bar.

[Just another Joe]

"Do you know what's really in cigarette smoke? How about 4,700 different chemical, including 200 known toxins and 40 known carcinogens (cancer causing substances). A few of these include formaldehyde, cyanide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, benzene, pyridine, cadmium, radon, lead, bismuth, and nitrogen oxides.

Now

1) let's see them all so that we can refute them.

2) How many of these chemicals, in amounts large enough to do any harm, are in ETS?

We ain't talking about first hand smoking. We're talking about ETS.

[SheLion]

Very good.

I am waiting for her answers. :)

[101viking]

Oh so it's hyperbole when someone else presents data compiled from studies carried out by the SAME organizations you cite? Interesting...if one is hyperbole why isn't the other?

[Shethink13]

My posts have pretty much just pointed out the dangers and folly of having no government regulation of restaurants at all. Even good restaurants were dangerous places to eat in the past.

Gee, I wasn't aware that before there were government regulations in restaurants there was this dangerous rash of food poisonings.

My guess would be that any restaurant who's patrons were consistently afflicted with food-borne illnesses wouldn't be in business very long. Word of mouth and all...

[CSM]

"The big chains apparently found its more profitable to go nonsmoking so long as the smoker has no other choices but to eat nonsmoking. This part of the market is using the the anti's group and the employee health group to force the bans.

Like it or not, the market is working, its just not working the way you want it to."

You really aren't to bright are you? Government mandates are not the market working. The proof is in your statements that the only way the chains became competitive was by using the government to "level the playing field"! The government leveling of the playing field is communist!

If the chains where established as smoke free restaurants by choice, that is fine with me. That should have been good enough for you too, that gave you your smoke free dining experience. Instead, they found that the market did not support their business decisions and called on the government to enforce their preferences! These chain restaurants would not have survived without government intervention. Once again, it bears repeating, the weakest among us expect the government to legislate our preferences and make us competitive!

Have you ever taken an economics course? Do you really belong on this board? You sound like a classic socialist and communist.

[george wythe]

800 complaints? Citizens against CITIZENS??!!

I suspect that same 10 people have filed these complaints, about 80 complaints per zealot.

I eat out a lot in Florida, and most people abide by the rules, since in Florida the weather is nice all year around, and going outside to smoke is no big deal.

Besides, many restaurants and bars have open areas where non-smokers and smokers hang out together.

These whiners need to get a life.

[Just another Joe]

Talk about selfish and rude.

I would rather have "selfish and rude", than have the govt taking private property rights away from property owners on the basis of junk science and scare tactics.

[Madame Dufarge]

Ancedotal information isn't the norm.

It always has been with you, you know all those stories about your smoking alcoholic ex-wife, and the current drill sergeant who made you quit smoking.

[SheLion]

Actually, I am former smoker who is happy he stopped that vile , expensive and unhealthy habit, but who still frequents smoked-filled bowling alleys and other places they allow smoking.

The smoking Conservatives on this Forum do not feel like you do about smoking. As you probably have gleaned by our posts.

Expensive? I roll a beautiful carton of cigarettes for around $8.00. Expensive for me no more.