Certainly being considerate, whether you’re a smoker or a non-smoker, is key. I am a non-smoker, and live in the heart of tobacco country— Winston-Salem, NC (actually in Lewisville, just outside of WS). I am in my early 50s, and grew up in a time when smoking was pretty much allowed, dare I say encouraged, most anywhere. Maybe not in church, but just outside. There were no non-smoking areas, including on airplanes. It seems most people smoked. (Watch most any movie from the late 50s and early 60s to see that this was true.) For whatever reason, health, perceived health or just a change in social mores, fewer people now smoke. Over time it changed from “mind if I smoke?” to growing bans on smoking.
These sort of changes are difficult for many people, and especially for smokers. My mother smoked until she died at age 43. My father quit, and my sister has recently quit. I don’t care if people smoke, and I believe in property owners’ rights as determinative of whether smoking ought to be allowed on one’s property. That said, tobacco smoke irritates me. I don’t think it’ll kill me, I just think it smells bad, and it lingers. Smokers cannot really appreciate this, and that is understandable. I don’t support these laws banning apartment smoking, or restaurant smoking either, although for me personally eating out is more enjoyable now. The owner of the business should make that call, and let the market rule.
I see I have ranted. Sorry. It’s going to take understanding by both sides. Non-smokers should understand that smokers can’t quit, or else they wouldn’t stand outside in the cold and rain to smoke. Smokers should understand that non-smokers don’t like the smell, whether it is harmful or not, and the smell stays with you longer than smokers can know, even if you are near a smoker outside, it is bothersome. Reasonable people ought to be able to work this stuff out.
Non-smokers should also understand that a lot of smokers have no interest in quitting smoking.
Smokers should understand that non-smokers don’t like the smell, whether it is harmful or not
And non-smokers should just get over it.
I am a smoker that doesn't like the smell of manure or fern bars, so I don't go near either.