Reply #46: I enjoy living in a smoke free more or less area. It is very nice

[yellowdogintexas]

to walk into a restaurant and eat, enjoy my meal and not come out smelling of other people's smoke, with a sore throat and a bad headache. Smoke is a major irritant to my respiratory system and not being around it is wonderful. It is nice to go to the grocery and not smell smoke all around the fresh food. It is heavenly to not have to breathe smoke at my workplace!

Now I DO think that alternative places should exist, (especially in the bar business) that are smoking establishments, advertised as such so that those of us who really can't tolerate it can not go there but those who want to smoke can go there. (just think of the extra money a town could make on the "smoking licenses" LOL) These could be traditional bars/pubs/taverns or more mainstream eating places, they just have to let us know it is a smoking place. I will so gratefully stay away and go to my non smoking eatery of choice.

When I travel to other parts of the country, I am careful of the places I choose to eat, because I know the smoking is not segregated and the ventilation may not be sufficient to compensate, which means I miss out on a lot of the good ole diners and family places when I am in Kentucky and Tennessee, but I am willing to give that up to breathe well and not have sore throat and a headache. I never go into the bar area of a restaurant as that is usually the smoking area.


And by the way, I live in a Major Metropolitan Area and the restaurant business is booming; no indication that the no smoking regs have harmed the restaurant business in any way.

it doesn't take long at all for a smoky place to irritate my sinuses, throat, lungs and trigger a bad headache, and that includes walking through the huddled masses of smokers at the workplace entrance. I try to detour where ever I can but sometimes can't avoid it.

Oh by the way, I grew up in Kentucky where they grow it, lived my young life surrounded by smokers, and suffered many a workplace filled with people lighting up constantly. I had no idea how much of my headaches and lung problems were due to smoke until I got into a smoke free workplace. The longer I remain where I seldom have to deal with smoke, the more irritating it becomes.