Ohhh a councilor pushing this… Conflict of interest?? If he’s with the Cancer Society??? Whatever happened to the ten per cent reduction?? Seems kinda like take from one to use for another. When is this spending spree gonna stop???

no tobacco rules are ‘no natives’ rules.

we could fill the cn centre with smokers and still not produce the pollution of a single v8 engine.

If your gonna ban the smokers might as well ban all local big industry, they are doing way worse things to our health than 2nd hand smoke.

Yeah get rid of the pulpmills while your at it… :P

once again… It has NOTHING to do with pollution or health. NOTHING. The stats are great fodder for arguments and justification but the fact of the matter is non smokers DO NOT LIKE smokers. They dont like walking through clouds of stink and they dont like looking at litter everywhere and they certainly dont like attending forest fires or house fires caused by smokers. Smoking is becoming more socially unacceptable and as such there will always be groups pushing for this. Comparing to the mills is meaningless. I dont recall a smoker handing me a paycheck, if ya get my drift ;)

I’m an ex smoker. I didn’t realize how much I and everything near me STUNK until I quit smoking cold turkey after 20 years. I also didn’t realize how you can smell the stench even following a car with a smoker in it. I also now know what it is to breath without coughing and wheezing. I fully support smoking bans in public spaces. Y’all stink and it’s a filthy addiction. Get as mad as you want! It’s your addiction talking. I know all about it! Go Cancer Society!

a_britishcolumbian… we are talking bout smoking, not natives… WHY would you want to keep the Natives away??? Maybe send them back to Canada??? That your solution??? Take a look at where your at.. mannnn some people… (apologies if I misinterpreted your comment but that’s how it comes across)

Since they are banning stuff… How bout we push for our Mayor to BAN staff/city councilors if they are not drug free.. Drug tests…

Spending spree with taxpayers money.. How much will all these studies costs us??

Ohhh look… sun is shining today…

I doubt that this will happen, I am a non smoker. but, I think as long as the government has their hands in collecting taxes off of it, it is not a illegal substance. Thus smokers do have some rights. I think the civic center and public buildings should have a bylaw, where no smoking with in 6 meters of main entry. They also should have structures so that they can go smoke in.

This ban would be an amazing change for the better if it could be implemented.

a room full of smokers won’t produce as much fumes as V8 engine in the room. Hmmmm a real good analysis. Well, if you leave a V8 engine running in a confined space, lets see what happens to the people in this space.

Who is going to enforce this law. Its one thing to come up with rules, but if your not going to enforce it. its just wasted print.

“DO NOT LIKE smokers.”

I don’t like perfumes, bad breath, Body odor etc… BAN THEM ALL

Starbucks coffee shops already have a sign in the window banning smoking within 7 meters of their door.

Where it will come down to a scrap is the patios that were designed for smokers now that the rooms within certain establishments built on earlier rules were banned

Interceptor, you are a mean bugger…

lol – its not meant to be mean Tinkerbell. I just mean that everyone has an agenda, even if its as simple as a dislike, and if you get enough people on your side then things like this get traction. The stats are used to validate the argument but does anyone REALLY believe that if you walk past a smoker in a doorway you are going to get lung cancer? I doubt it.

oh – all in my opinion of course ;)

While your at it ban smoking outside of the emergency room by all those nurses and doctors. I had to walk through it the other day on my way into the ER, disgusting

That 7 metre ban is a law, not just for Starbucks, but all buildings, including air intakes. It should be further though.

As far as outside goes, how many people smoke on trails? We may be banning something that is not even done except once in a century.

I think this is overkill. Police what is already there around buildings and be done with it.

As far as cancer goes, there are MUCH greater things that are important. The rates for lung related diseases in PG are higher not only because of a larger population of smokers but because of other pollutants in the air. THAT is the difficult one.

Stepping on smokers and squishing them in this fashion is so easy though. That is the only reason this is getting support.

It is an EASY button. Just like no idle signs.

One V8, is that the same as two 4 cylinder vehicles? Funny anology.

No smoker is going to pay any attention to this Bylaw. The Bylaw itself cannot be enforced, so it will just be another piece of legislation that will sit quietly on a shelf somewhere, and the Cancer Society, Krause, Beth James, and others will go to bed at night believing that they have done some good.

This is nothing more than meaningless mumbo jumbo. Perhaps all the high paid help at City Hall could get on to other things that are somewhat more important. Like reducing taxes, reducing costs, reducing excess staff, improving policing, and reducing crime, look after infrastructure, etc; Just to name a few.

500 years ago no one in europe was smoking tobacco, everyone in ‘canada’ was.

tobacco is acred, not to be regulated and denied as it is increasingly.

no smoking rules make no sense. go to icbc, and there are running vehicles inside, but you can’t smoke. that is just prejudiced.

7 metres, why don’t vehicles have to obey same? prohibiting smoking outdoors is crazy given that cars are outdoors.

somehow i can smoke all day long and still do it, and wake up tomorrow and do it again. if i were to try inhaling car exhaust for even a few minutes i would die, quickly.

human lungs hold 1/4 litre of air or less, and we breath maybe once every 5 to 10 seconds. so lets generously give a smoker credit for 15 litres of smoke per minute.

3.5 litre v-6s are pretty common these days, at 2000 rpm, divided in half (4 stroke) gives 3500 litres of car exhaust every minute.

and somehow ‘we’ decide banning outdoor smoking is going to help, rather than just discriminate?

Really, there’s nothing better to be concerned about??? Just a couple headers down, “Prince George Area Sees Break & Enter Increase. I’ll bet even the non-smokers are more concerned with time spend dealing with this issue then whether or not some one is 3 meters or 7 from the door when they light up. Let’s see, my house is getting broke into as you Mr. Office are telling me to move 6 inches to the left!!!

Just another waste of time and tax payers money to bring in a useless bylaw that would be challenged and defeated in the courts. these “make work” projects are really getting out of hand. Just like the renos proposed for the civic center. Think about it, it’s the winter games….half of the plan is going to be covered in snow! This city is managed and run by idiots both at the hall and in counsel. What a waste of time and money.

Of course the games are coming to town so the city wants all civic venues clean and smoke free. Still trying to polish a turd I say.

We don’t need another bylaw, I am highly allergic to tabacco smoke (& pot smoke) but to make another law that people will ignore is not good for society. We have so many little laws that people pick & choose what laws they will obey and when you stop obeying one law then it okay to stop obeying more laws. What we need is more common sense and manners. We are harder on people that smoke something legal than we are on people that smoke something illegal or use other illegal drugs in public places.

In 2008 BC passed public smoking laws “Starting March 31, 2008, it will be against the law to smoke in any indoor public place or worksite, including pubs, bars, restaurants, and shopping centres. Designated smoking rooms are non-existent, and public transit, transit shelters, taxis and work vehicles are also smoke-free.

In addition, there is a 3 metre non-smoking “buffer zone” around public and work place doorways, opening windows and air intakes including apartments and condominiums.”

Vancouver has a bylaw “In addition to the provincial restrictions, the City of Vancouver is putting more stringent health by-laws into effect. The City of Vancouver bylaw bans smoking on restaurant/bar patios and bans smoking within 6 meters of doors/windows, as well as 6 meters from customer service areas, including patios”

Richmond includes 25 meters from any park or recreational field, but allows smoking in outdoor patios and the fine does not go to the smoker but the ‘responsible person’ in charge of the establishment. Wonder if the city gets the fine for smokers in parks…?

Surrey has a 7.5 meter smoking restriction of any opening into a building including any door or window that opens or any air intake. Not allowed on partially enclosed shelters where people wait for a vehicle for hire. But is not prohibited in patios.

WCB also has separate rules for workplaces and employee smoking.

i do not believe a single one of those jurisdictions has ever implemented a ‘zero emission’ vehicle zone, ever, anywhere.

no ‘government’ has every really taken the issue of personal emissions seriously, rather they have just catered to the racist element among us.

To those smokers defending their smoking you do know that you will die a long painful lingering death. You folks should hangout in St. Pauls cardiac ward for a couple of day.

Does it matter if you are a smoker or non smoker as long as you are respectful of other people. Have a bylaw to prevent disrespectful individuals from civic properties.

ckpg news is spewing lies, ‘no smoking is the number 1 form of preventable deaths’.

hmmm… i wonder where abortion and war fit in.

a_britishcolumbian here is some stats for ya, also think of the medical costs re taxes. Smokers should pay a medical premium. The stats below are only for the US think of world wide stats.

Cigarette smoking causes about one of every five deaths in the United States each year.1,6 Cigarette smoking is estimated to cause the following:1
•More than 440,000 deaths annually (including deaths from secondhand smoke)
•49,400 deaths per year from secondhand smoke exposure
•269,655 deaths annually among men (including deaths from secondhand smoke)
•173,940 deaths annually among women (including deaths from secondhand smoke)

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/

those numbers are of course from the usa, and it is obvious they are not including abortion in those figures, nor combat.

and seamutt, are you trying to say that smoking is more harmful to the population that internal combustion engines?

I’m a non-smoker and I’m not a big fan of the stink, but whatever….as noted, some people’s breath stinks, some people just stink in general. If people want to shorten their lives and give themselves a nice smokey stench, that’s their perogitive. There’s too many rules these days as it is…..

But what part of stomping a cigarette butt out on the sidewalk or throwing it out one’s car window not constitute littering?? This is, IMO, the worst part about the habit – not sure if most smokers are just oblivious to this or if they just don’t care…….either way, turning the screws on that sort of nasty habit would be a better step in the right direction……IMHO.

Many years ago my mother used to say,”Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

The perceived lack of control regarding internal engine exhaust discussion is not relevant to the dangers and misery caused by smoking directly or indirectly.

(Also, the government is also proceeding on the engine exhaust front with increased emission controls and fleet mileage requirements.)

And just because the government taxes tobacco, there is no inferred “rights” passed on to the smoker. The government licenses hunting rifles; however, there are strict laws about their use.

Tobacco use is an addiction. So accept the increased constraints in the spirit of “harm reduction” while still recognizing that society continues to respect that the addicts have the right to their addiction. This is the same spirit as current progressive moves with alcoholics and street drug users.

Maybe it won’t be long until the potheads and the nicotine fiends can have their own harassment free safe inhale sites.

I’m a non-smoker and I’m not a big fan of the stink, but whatever….as noted, some people’s breath stinks, some people just stink in general. If people want to shorten their lives and give themselves a nice smokey stench, that’s their perogitive. There’s too many rules these days as it is…..

But what part of stomping a cigarette butt out on the sidewalk or throwing it out one’s car window not constitute littering?? This is, IMO, the worst part about the habit – not sure if most smokers are just oblivious to this or if they just don’t care…….either way, turning the screws on that sort of nasty habit would be a better step in the right direction……IMHO.