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Most proponents of the ban on smoking in public places start with (or at least use) an argument referring to the harmful effects of passive smoking on people other than the smoker.

I have to, thus, start with the following caveat: I don't believe that there is enough reliable research evidence as to lethal effects of passive smoking. Whilst a strong, though by no means 100%, causal connection has been well documented between 'active' smoking and lung cancer, the evidence for significant or noticeable negative effects of passive smoking is thin; and that is despite desperate attempts to stretch studies and their results far enough to provide such evidence. Even if we assume that the risk factors are correct, they are, firstly, rather small (risk factors around 1.2-1.4 seem to appear most often in literature) and secondly, strongly related to actually *living* day-to-day with a smoker.

I have not been able to find a reliably looking study that showed risk factors for people exposed to environmental tobacco smoke at work but not at home.

That is why my argument starts with the premise that passive smoking is not a life-or-death issue. Smoking is treated as an unpleasant, annoying or filthy habit that affects people around smoker in a disagreeable way. A lot of non-smokers don't like staying in smoky rooms; for various reasons: some get a headache, others hate the way clothes smell after spending an evening in a smoky room, others still dislike the smell of cigarettes or cigars while they are being smoked. To be honest, it is probable that even many smokers don't particularly like such atmosphere.

As an aside, I don't believe that the fact that smoking can be dangerous to smoker's health comes into question here. I am rather worried by wider political implications of government and regulatory intervention into lifestyle habits of people on (often very flimsy) grounds of health and safety. I don't think that legal regulations should try to save us from ourselves, thank you very much. It's not a place to dwell deeper into this subject but there must be a clear line between keeping people informed so they can make their own decision (equivalent to putting up a sign "swimming here is extremely dangerous") and trying to make such decisions for them (equivalent to putting up a sign that declares "swimming forbidden" in exactly the same circumstances). The latter can insidiously change from banning obvious hazards to possible hazards to things that are just unsavoury to anything

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