[WillowTheWhisp]

I'm with Janet - no visitor to my house is permitted to smoke inside the house. If they choose to smoke that's fine but I choose not to have them smoke around me. If they want to do it then they must go elsewhere, preferably far enough away for the smoke not to drift back into the house.

I also hate it when I'm in a "smoke free" part of a restaurant and the smoke from elsewhere drifts across contaminating my food. Smokers probably have no idea how the smoke in the air affects the food because they are so used to it being there but it can actually make a non smoker physically sick. Why should we have to endure our meal being ruined?

All I ask is that smokers do it somewhere where it isn't going to affect non smokers. If I chose to go into a smoke filled environment that would be my problem. At times when I have spent an evening in a smoky atmosphere the smell longers on my clothes and my hair and actually follows me into my house. The sooner I can wash everything the better. But again a smoker just wouldn't understand that because their clothes etc are permanently contaminated by the smell of stale tobacco.

If I did something which affected others and made them feel ill I wouldn't consider that I had a right to do it in their presence.

Oh and yes I do think it's hypocritical of a government to ban something which they probably continue to practice themselves.

As for the smokers paying the health costs of the non smokers I would love to know statistically how much is spent on smoking realted health problems in comparison to non-smoking related. I know the government gets a lot of revenue from taxation on tobacco products but I don't think it goes towards paying for my very rare visits to the doctor.