>Then please banish heavy perfumes and colognes while you're redifining the world to your preferences.
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>I'm not against your right to fresh air. Far from it! I generally do try to be (if anything) OVER-cautious when I'm around fragile non-smokers. The utter contempt shown by some people in this thread, though, has me fearing for my life.

Dan,

This IS an issue that generates hatred and contempt for smokers, even in people not normally prone to such.

There is a place here in Canada where perfumes, colognes, deodorants and anything else with the least hint of a smell has a grass-roots movement (at least I don't think it's become law yet) to eradicate it all. It is in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I am confident that any scientist who cares to can show unacceptable levels of somethings bad in an infant's/person's body. But when will they ban gas/deisel engines or synthetic carpeting or all of the adhesives/solvents developed in the last 100 years to clean people's systems from their "impact"? When will hormones and antibiotics be banned from being fed to domestic animals?
I'm of the opinion that radio waves are THE major contributor to elevated cancer rates. Do you see any prospect of banning those any time soon?

The thing about smoking is that it's detractor's arguments 'took hold'. Thankfully, those who tried to do the same for cochlear implants lost their battle, but given a slightly different set of circumstances I believe they could have won too.

It's a sad state of affairs. I find myself meekly and wilfully complying with all the new laws aimed at curtailing my personal freedom in this regard. But I do draw the line at situations like, when out in public in the open air I light up a cigarette and someone comes along and starts wafting their hand in front of their face and starts cough-coughing but doesn't say anything. If they can't ask me to stop, then I continue. (often, it's to their own benefit because I do it seeing a long bus lineup, knowing that if I light up a bus will appear instantly < s >)

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SNIP