Smoking declared a basic human right

iol.co.za ^ | April 14, 2004 | iol.co.za

[RogerFGay]

Oslo, Norway - A Norwegian county has declared smoking to be a basic human right in a dispute over a ban imposed on one town's workers.

Levanger, a township of about 18 000 people in central Norway, banned all smoking by municipal employees during working hours on or off city property at the beginning of the year.

The ruling, which made national news Wednesday, came after three opponents of the rule, all local council members from the right-wing Party of Progress, asked the county governor's office to assess the ban's legality.

In a letter to the city dated Tuesday, the county declared the ban invalid because it violates the European Human Rights Convention.

It said the city can ban smoking on its property, but not, for example, if a worker was driving their own car or on private property.

The county cited a section of the convention that protects citizens' private lives.

The letter said "a total ban on smoking during working hours is a measure that is not reasonable in relation to the goal of the ban."

Birger Meinhardt and Steinar Holten, two of the politicians who lodged the complaint, celebrated the ruling on the steps of the Levanger town hall by lighting up the biggest cigars they could find.

"Just like before January 1, 2004," Holten told the Troender-Avisa newspaper as he puffed on the cigar. - Sapa-AP

[RogerFGay]

Swedish ping for story from Norway

[Free_at_last_-2001]

A Norwegian county has declared smoking to be a basic human right... - Good!

[Bismarck]

Again, a right-wing party standing up for individual rights!

[mylife]

"Smokem if ya got em"

[Welsh Rabbit]

Isn't it funny how they took the label "progressive"? A lot more appropriate than those claiming to "progressive" in this country...

[AM2000]

Calling smoking a basic human right is just as silly as calling gay marriage a basic human right.

[Grig]

That is just stupid. Wanting something doesn't mean you have a basic human right to it.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Calling smoking a basic human right is just as silly as calling gay marriage a basic human right.>>>

You notice that the declaration does not restrict itself to tobacco. Duuuuuuude.

[Gabz]

PUFF!!!!!!!!!!

[Psycho_Bunny]

I hadn't thought about it before but, going off my definition of Individual Human Rights - that an Individual Human Right is anything you can do which doesn't require the effort or involvement of another person - smoking is a Right.

But, like everyone other Individual Human Right, smoking must be tempered by a social contract.

[Bismarck]

True... here hardcore Marxists who have wet dreams with Lenin call themselves "progressives". How the hell can you be progressive if you are constantly trying to implement dated economical systems that have consistently failed throughout history? There's a question the red vermin hates to answer...

[Socratic]

"Calling smoking a basic human right is just as silly as calling gay marriage a basic human right."

Wow! A thread that combines Puffs and Poofs.

[Gabz]

What an ugly comparison.

This is an issue of over intrusion in to private lives and private property by government.

[Wheee The People]

Calling smoking a basic human right is just as silly as calling gay marriage a basic human right.

LOL

[ScaniaBoy]

True, but this was really about the town council's right to forbid something - and that is certainly not a basic right!

[little jeremiah]

Breathing air is a basic human right. If someone wants to breathe in air mixed with hot smoke, that "right" is tempered by the right of other people to breathe in plain air.

Do you know how many people have asthma that is triggered by breathing in other peoples' cigarette smoke?

Just a question.

I am not an anti-smoking Nazi. I just like to breathe plain air and stay alive. In public places (airports, post offices, and so on) smoking should be banned. Otherwise, many people with breathing difficulties could not go to those places.

Private businesses, that's another story. If they want to allow smoking, fine, they can get along with a lot of customiers who will choose to patronize non-smoking establishments.

[Gabz]

I am fully aware of the problems of those with asthma.....this has nothing to do with that.

The county ruled the city could ban smoking on city property.....but could not forbid their employees to smoke in their own vehicles or on private property where it is permitted.

The county ruling was that the city was over stepping its bounds in regard to private property.

[Dr. Marten]

If this is supposed to be a basic human right, then they have no right to sue tobacco companies~

[Irish_Thatcherite]

I wish Irish local government had that kind of power, we're so ****ing centralized here (and I don't think we're centralized to Dublin, but to Brussels at this stage)

Norwegians have a wisdom the rest of Europe obviously lacks-they kept the **** out of the Eurocratic Neosocialist Politburo that is the European Union.

P.S, I'm a smoker, but I don't believe you have a right to smoke on someone else's property without their permission, but Government has not the right to ban it either on private property