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Should smokers have the right to buy tobacco, to light up and indulge their addictive hobby? Absolutely. I believe in personal freedom generally, and this includes the freedom of smokers to smoke.

Should smokers have the right to expose me to the by-products of their smoking? Absolutely not. Because I believe in my own personal freedom, which includes the freedom not to have to inhale the airborne residue from burning tobacco or have my clothes and hair smelling like a bonfire.

For me, the health problems associated with tobacco are not the main issue. Yes, smoking is generally bad for the smoker and, to a lesser extent, the people around him or her. Apart from the studies linking smoking to lung cancer, research has established connections between smoking and heart disease, high blood pressure, bad circulation, vitamin C depletion, and premature aging of the skin.

I don't really care too much about all that, as I don't smoke. Neither am I exposed to enough second-hand smoke for these to be a problem.

No, what I object to is the fact that if I'm sitting down in a restaurant, enjoying a pleasant meal, and if you start to smoke at the next table, you're making me breathe your fumes against my will. I don't enjoy the taste of tobacco smoke and would prefer to eat my banoffee pie or vanilla ice cream without it being flavoured by nicotine by-products. But you don't care.

Actually, the fact that you don't care is beside the point. In the crowded urban conditions in which huge numbers of us live nowadays, it's perfectly okay not to love and cherish the hordes of strangers we encounter every day. But that's why we have manners and sets of rules (some enshrined in law, some not) that tell us what is acceptable behaviour and what is not. Mores differ by culture and from place to place, but in at least in Western Europe and North America it has increasingly become bad manners to expose others to second-hand smoke, just as it is bad manners to expose others to offensively loud noise or foul odours.

Now this particular rule has become law in my native UK, following the example of several other countries such as the US and Ireland. As a non-smoker, I'm happy about this - it means fewer spoilt meals in restaurants, and I can even go to the pub and not have to dry-clean my clothes afterwards.

I don't like the fact that smoker's rights are now curtailed by the law, however. They should be allowed the freedom to consume tobacco, just as people who enjoy fast food should be able to eat it, despite the health risks.

But, as the old saying goes, your right to throw a punch ends at the tip of my nose. Similarly, your right to smoke ends at the surface of my skin, the inside of my nose and mouth, and at the alveoli in my lungs.

No way is that as catchy, but you get my drift.

Learn more about this author, Alex Cull.
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