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Okay IF we are going to ban smoking inside and outside (like alcohol) then we should also ban alcohol INSIDE! And while we are at it - let's ban ALL gambling, Obesity, etc. (addictions and unhealthy threats)

Smokers throw cigarette butts everywhere and anywhere. Besides being disgusting, this is littering and littering IS illegal. Smokers should be willing to be responsible and accountable for their actions because how they are acting makes them look really not good. It's unfortunate that smokers apparently need laws to tell them (how) to act with courtesy to others, particularly in regard to their smoking.

If you are not allowed to smoke outside in the city or inside, then just outlaw the cigarettes. Make smoking cigarettes illegal, just like pot! In a city full of pollutants proven to give children in the Bronx major health concerns, shouldn’t the officials have bigger companies to burn?

Truth is, it's hard to ask someone to move away because their smoke is bothering you, because moving away implies separation from community. But that's exactly what non-smokers have consistently NOT done. And over time, their resentment about the disgust they've suffered has simmered into this: a wholesale witchhunt.

As a result people are grasping for straws to justify their outrage, including very trumped up and questionable research that occasssional secondhand smoke (ie from parks) is injurious. No one's questioning the MUCH more carcinogenic smoke from barbecues in those same parks, or, as others have mentioned, from cars. (How about ENCOURAGING people to smoke, as long as they do it right on city streets, as a visceral reminder of all the car exhaust they breathe in every day but can’t smell because it's been treated with a catalytic converter ;-) .

I used to smoke, but not any more. However, I ~like~ the smell of smoke. Sure, if I get drenched in it at very close range for too long I need to get away, and I may start to crave it. But otherwise, I like the smell. For me it conjures up independence, and the meditative state tobbacco brings on. Smells can do that: if I associate a smell with certain people, social situations, or qualities I like, I'm going to like the smell.

But I ~know~ I'm doing this. Anti-smokers are only very rarely actually allergic to smoke; usually, it's that they have come to associate smoke with all the seething resentment they feel for the smokers that they themselves have failed to be assertive with, and so it smells dirty and disgusting to them.

This discussion should have been about having the chutzpa to assert oneself around smokers, not about whether we should finally put smokers out of their misery.

To those who enjoy posting without knowledge:

--The effects of second hand smoke is (sic) debatable

Only those connected to the tobacco industry foment that view. It is well-established that SHS is seriously harmful.

See: www.surgeongeneral.gov/.../secondhandsmoke/.../factsheet6.html

As for pets:

"Dogs and cats that are exposed to smoke can develop asthma, respiratory inflammation and respiratory infections. Symptoms include congestion, difficulty breathing, exercise intolerance and coughing. Lung changes can be identified on chest X-rays. Secondhand smoke has also been linked to the development of many types of cancer in animals, including oral, nasal and respiratory neoplasia."

More at: www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090815/A_LIFE11/908150306/-1/NEWSMAP

PETA also is aware of the issue, and has more info.

To those with serious issues surrounding smoking, tough luck. That really sucks but we all got stuff that drives us crazy or hinders are lives in some way but we have to live with. Even the choices others make for themselves affect us and we can't always do something about it.

If second hand smoke were truly so harmful why aren't their legions of pets who's owners smoke with lung cancer? The effects of second hand smoke is debatable. Whether it bothers you isn't but the actual evidence about second hand smoke causing serious health issues is.

All y'all shouting to ban smoking in public are just simply jerks. I don't smoke but I think the level of hatred expressed towards smokers on this comment page is pretty jerkey. Smoking is legal, sorry and tobacco is a cornerstone of American history. Cigarettes haven't been criminalized and it doesn't seem like they're going to be. We share this city and as long as its a pollution filled city a smoking ban in public parks would be exceedingly unfair to smokers. You're not saving them from anything you're imposing your standards on them. If you don't want to be near the smoke move away from it. I know, it's annoying but so are other things you have to deal with and its not too big a deal to move away from a smoker or have them move. Instead of banning a legal activity in a public place why not come up with some guidelines for smokers to follow. Something both sides could live with. Like no smoking by playgrounds, and carry an ashtray like they do in Japan. Something reasonable. There are countless compromises we must make living in a city and we do it all the time.

Wow. Except for a few nerds carrying tobacco industry water, there seems to be a shocking number of pro-outdoor-smoking ban comments here.

I think this represents a sea change in attitudes that didn't exist even a year ago.

To all that want to ban or outlaw smoking outright, add fat people to your list. After all we become what we see around us and if smoking is a bad influence, well I see a lot more fat people everyday then I see smokers. Certainly ban people with bad body odor or wearing to much perfume. Get rid of all cell phones and Ipods. I don’t know how many people using these devises I’ve almost hit in my car because they’re not paying attention. Heck, ban all cars and trucks from NYC and we can go back to horse and carriages. But ban the horses because I find the smell and manure all over the place to be very offensive….

Sounds pretty stupid huh? To all you ninnies above, want to live in a white washed satirized world? If that’s what you desire, go live with the Mennonites and leave the real un sanitized for better or worse world to the rest of us to live in…. Oh and please don’t say your concerned about kids or the rest of society. We all know you’re only concerned about your own well being and how it effects you……

Brian (#48) - OK, so let's keep smoking in the parks, but ban it on the sidewalk - hmmm, now there's an idea . . .

re: Marielle #34. Where can you get more than 10 feet away from someone in NYC? Um... parks...

To Nancy (#45) - would that every smoker were as considerate as you!

BAN SMOKING NOW IN NYC. Smokers are inconsiderate people with a nasty, nasty habit. Why don't they get it? No one wants to smell that crap. I often have to hold my breath while RUNNING away from their smoke clouds. I even cross the street to get away from them. Poison yourself in the privacy of your own home.

Ban cars in NYC too.

I really take offense to people lumping all smokers together as being inconsiderate and rude. I never smoke in my home as no other members of my family smoke. I smoke in my car when I'm alone, and if I'm with other people I ask them if it would bother them if I smoked.

I never litter cigarette butts. I put the cigarette out and throw the butt in a trash can. If there isn't one around, I put it back in my pack until I can find one. At the beach, I bring a portable ashtray with me.

Some of us are struggling with this addiction but are making every attempt at being considerate.

I would't object to a ban around public places where it would be disturbing such as a playground. Hospitals have a non-smoking zone, but they also provide benches and ashtrays outside of the zone.

I have always had an extreme reaction to cigarette smoke. My eyes and throat swell up, I get migraines, the problem is so bad that I have to avoid the smoke at all cost which has proved to be a huge problem, especially in recent years as people have taken to smoking while walking to and from work. I realize how frustrating it is for smokers who are gradually having all of their rights to smoke in public taken away from them. But whether or not you smoke is a choice. Those of us who have severe allergies to cigarette smoke can't choose to just not have a reaction to the smoke. I would welcome the opportunity to spend the day in the park or just walking down the street and not have to worry about finding an area or path in order to avoid the smokers.

Just a note to your wanna-be quitters... Halloween will be my 12th anniversary w.o a cig and I still want one every day, and smell the smell off packs of peoples' smokes when they're laying around.

Do not kid yourself - it may be the hardest thing you've ever done, it was one of the hardest things I have. Not quitting, but staying quit. I use the analogy for people who've not gone through it of having the bones ripped out of my body (read up on the comparisons between nicotine and heroin addiction - heroin is supposedly easier to quit).

It's more than a battle of wills, as I learned having failed (as many of you probably have) many times... it is an addition which required retraining and relearning a behavior, which is completely different than just saying "no."

You may well need something bigger than yourself, like 12-step groups promote. For me the motivator was the children I hoped to have one day - that I wanted to live, and live healthfully for them. And now I have an amazing little boy... and I can't imagine how different his life would be, and mine, if I were a smoker.

Best of luck and please do find your mantra, your sherpa, your good book on what addiction is and how it works, and enjoy your life w.o the 1000+ chemicals in every cigarette you used to smoke.

Think of this: after 7 weeks or so, you will take a deeper breath than you ever remembered. If I remember the facts correctly: after ~7 years, if you have no permanent damage, you'll have a new set of lungs and a normal life expectancy, as the cells will have all regenerated.

J

p.s. Prepare your friends and coworkers because you WILL be in a terrible mood at times and may not be able to contain it. If they understand what you're doing, they will be supportive.

To Mike (#40) who says I need to get out more - I love to get out, but as a commuter I have to stand in line for a bus in both the morning and the evening - and I do not have the option of moving away from the jerk next to me who sees nothing wrong with puffing away right next to me.

I wanted to respond to one of your callers who had said at some point people need to have liberties and be able to do what they wanted and this may include smoking outside. I am a non smoker and cigarette smoke is very irritating to me. If people are going to look at as people have a right to smoke where they want, then non smokers have an equal right to breath clean non-cigarette contaminated air. Yes you can't take every place away from them so have designated smoking areas that non smokers no not to go around.

On comment suggests fining people for throwing cigarrette butts on the ground. There are already anti-littering laws. Why not enforce them against all the people throwing their gum wrappers and fast food wrappers on the ground. That's far more offensive. Another asks where in NYC can you be 10 feet from anybody. She needs to get out more. I can walk 10 minutes from my apartment in Manhattan and not see another soul for an hour.

People! It's not brain surgery!!!

Clearly, if smokers could police themselves (which they have proven that they are completely unable to do...hell, I can remember when idiots would light up in BATHROOM STALLS, for god's sake!!)then we would not have to do the policing FOR them by stepping in and creating laws.
People who smoke are unable to think of any one but themselves, so we have to look out for OURselves!
End of story.

This ban is pure bupkus. Does the Parks Department enforce leash or pooper-scooper laws? Of course not! The City doesn't even submit its vehicles to emissions inspections. Five minutes of one of their pick-up trucks emits more . . . . stuff into the atmosphere than five packs of cigarettes combined. This is just some white-gloved moral nonsense, up there with Prohibition and the mayor jet-setting reguarly in his private plane. It's silly, and it's hypocritical, and it's high time we called it that way.

I say ban kids from the public parks, or perhaps corral them into small parts of the parks where their parents will be impressed with how their contributung to the environmental degredation caused by overpopulation. Isn't it about time we regulated kids?

i don't think this is a matter of 'the government telling you what you do' its really just basic consideration for other people and some people are so selfish that they need the government to tell them what NOT to do, and yes you can smell someone else's cigarette from 2 feet away if a gentle breeze comes along, it really is carcinogenic and unpleasant, the air we breathe belongs to everyone and we should keep it clean.

Ban smoking from playrounds for the children. Who's going to argue against that? Then build more playgrounds.

Fine people for throwing cig. butts on the floor.

This is NOT just about the health effects of second-hand smoke. Howard (#7) made the point well. You can't drink in public, why should you be able to smoke in public? People say "You can't smell it 10 feet away" - where in NYC do you have a distance of 10 feet from anyone?

It's an outrage. I'm sick of the punitive nature of this type of regulation. The Maryland solution Brian mentioned is far superior (friendly signs asking people to smoke 40 feet away from the playground) - it's a suggestion appealing to the best in people, rather than shaming or "criminalizing" them.

In Sander Gilman's great book Smoke: A Global History of Smoking he recounts a great theory, which seems so true, that smokers are controlling their environment with their smoke. The cloud is their area of control, and we all have seemingly so little control of parts of our lives. Makes sense...

Smokers are, in general, slobs. They throw their butts everywhere. Look on the streets and in the parks. The one type of litter you see ALL over the place is cigarette butts.

If for no other reason, that is a good reason to ban smoking in parks.

The man is right about exhaust from vehicles is a lot worse yet we dare not stop the use of fuels that produce these metal containing exhaust fumes.

People have been told they cannot smoke cigarrettes in their own apartments because the smoke goes through the walls. Now they won't be able to smoke in public, too? There is no where left.

Yeah, I agree with the smog comment. Might as well ban all cars in NYC.

This is not as radical a proposal as some would paint it.

San Francisco and Los Angeles have similar bans, as do other cities, counties and states, including Utah, Louisiana, Maine and California.

Also, fires and litter has been a factor for the bans. Few smokers seem to understand that cigarette butts are tremendously damaging to the environment, especially to sea life.

I think the sign to move away from playgrounds is a good idea. But what I feel is a much more important issue to address is smoking in homes where there are children. These children are trapped! I am not sure how to approach this but parents should not be allowed to smoke at home with children there to breath it in. :(

i'm an antismoker but this is crazy and way over the top. they don't have enough police to stop littering in general how in the world are they going to pull this off.

Given the quality of NYC air, isn't outdoor smoke a comparatively minor concern? Why not take on the bigger issue of particulate matter?

I am an ex smoker and even though I no longer smoke I find it ridiculous that the government would attempt to mandate what people do in outdoor spaces. It just seems that we are all too quick to try to control the behaviors of others instead on worrying about ourselves!

I don't smoke. And I don't even smell cigarettes anymore or rarely see any.

So let them smoke. This is getting too gestapo. This is the quiet tyrants reaching into everyone else's life to control them.

What's next: No Fat or overweight people are allowed to walk in the park? No Ugly people are allowed to sit in visual range of the kids of people who happen to be rich?

Ban smoking everywhere. I live next to a college dorm and all the students smoke outside and flip the butts into my doorway. Who do people think clean up the streets and the parks. And why is the world an ashtray?

As a former (polite) smoker who appreciates pressure to quit, this proposed ban is pressing my fascism alarm.

I do think the Maryland approach is reasonable.

I am not a smoker, but this is getting ridiculous. The smoking ban killed off my neighborhood restaurant, Ernie's on the UWS. Ferchrissakes - people smoke in bars. And now parks? Enough nannying.

The health effect of 2nd hand smoke outside is comparable to living near a highway or driving your car to work every day. A million things in our every day lives from clean fluids to driving have negative health effects. This seems like a Temperance revival....

Does this regulation apply to pot?

I live in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and on several occasions have had to ask people to refrain from smoking in local playgrounds. So I think there should definitely be designated areas in parks where you are not allowed to smoke.

They smoke and run in your face for conversation...stinky and that throwing the lit cigarette out of the window should be illegal!

Ban car exhaust first!

Smoking should be banned EVERYWHERE. I have long promoted the idea of the "smoking corral" where smokers can pay to stare each other in their yellow-teethed faces and inhale each other's poison. (Then we use the revenue for anti-smoking campaigns). These could be tents every ten blocks or so. The rest of us should not have to suffer the ills of office workers, people in parks, or anywhere. Until smoking is made illegal, people should only be allowed to do it in their own homes.

The caller wants fresh air in the parks? The air in the parks has not met Federal air quality standards since they were extablished in the mid-1960s. Ban cars before cigarrettes.

I find this development very upsetting. I don't want New York City to become the suburb I moved here to escape. In my hometown, they outlawed smoking while standing still. It's ridiculous.

Many smokers do pay attention to the proximity of children and attempt to move away.

i am all for this.....as soon as we ban cars from nyc. car exhaust is way more foul than cigs. (i am not a smoker but have friends who do.)

I'm a smoker, and although it would be really inconvenient for me, I wouldn't mind the ban. Anything that would make it harder for people, especially children, to take up the habit seems like a good idea. Maybe a smoking section away from children would be great. I hate setting a bad example for kids anyway, so I'd rather have a section away from them. I wish I could quit, but just because I'm hooked, doesn't mean I want other people to be around it.

Next step: no smoking outside anywhere.

Lets outlaw all public smoking just like we can not drink in public

can we ban fat people in parks too? thanks.

Obnoxious. I'm not a smoker, but when you're outside, you can't smell someone's smoke 2 feet away from you. Totally obnoxious.

ban charcoal grills, first

SO in favor of this! Smokers can be so clueless - I've seen them smoking on the playground WITH their kids - what are they thinking? Let's clear the air.

Smoking and smokers Stink! Ban smoking everywhere except in your personal residence or vehicle with window closed!!

It would be great if (at least) the Quiet Zones could also be smoke-free.