US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

[alklloyd]

According to today's WSJ. This has irritated me enough for me to do what I have never done before on the forums: use a smilie.

Looks like I may be skipping the next Shmoocon...

Al

[Gadsden]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Get used to it.. many/most public places are getting rid of it. In RI and MA ALL public places ban smoking indoors.. even strip clubs. Personally, I like it. I want to come home smelling like strippers, not smoke...

[Voltage Spike]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Personally, I applaud Marriott for this. I don't think it's right that the government is telling businesses how to run things (as is apparently the case in RI and MA), and I've always said that there would be a ban if it made good business sense. Marriott has apparently decided that this is the case.

I'm with che in that I enjoy a smoke-free environment. If someone can make a profit with their non-smoking strip club, then let them. But do we really need big brother makings laws because some people find something unpleasant?

[TheCotMan]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Personally, I applaud Marriott for this. I don't think it's right that the government is telling businesses how to run things (as is apparently the case in RI and MA), and I've always said that there would be a ban if it made good business sense. Marriott has apparently decided that this is the case.

I'm with che in that I enjoy a smoke-free environment. If someone can make a profit with their non-smoking strip club, then let them. But do we really need big brother makings laws because some people find something unpleasant?

Without going into politics, and trying to stick within law, here are some issues that have come up with respect to this:
A rule that has often been used is a general rule of:
"You have the right to express your rights through action up until your action infringe on the rights of others."
Smoking could be considered such a thing, especially with studies of 2nd hand smoke, and issue of containment. (Second hand smoke pollution can be an example of one person's right infringing upon the rights of others.)

Another issue comes dow to employees, and a "safe work environment."

Another issue comes in adding a requirement for people to be smokers before they are hired, or the legal headache of illegally asking people to sign away rights that they can't really sign away and have them be very strong as a defense in court when the employee sues over getting lung cancer.

If a company switched to a Smoker's Club, could they legally fire people because they were not smokers? -- "Injure yourself or we will fire you."

I'm not saying I agree with the above, but I am saying (or writing) that the above items are some of the more common items referenced when businesses seek to move to smoke-free spaces.

Related question: If a non-smoking employee lives in a house without smokers, but works in a hotel cleaning rooms with smokers, and the employee becomes afflicted with a specific kind of cancer that is almost always associated with smoking, then is this a work-related injury? If so, could it have been prevented? If so, is it reasonable to assume that the risks of 2nd hand smoke could harm employees?

Businesses live on profit. If litigation risks profits, then proactive decisions can protect future earnings.

I've tried to bring up questions about laws, and avoid politics. Please help me help keep this thread politics free. :-)

[bascule]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

I think the government should authorize the EPA to regulate the RADIONUCLETIDES in cigarettes before it starts banning smoking.

When it comes down to it:

- People want smoking banned first and foremost because it's annoying and smelly
- Then they argue the health angle

Don't get me wrong. The health angle on cigarettes is horrible. They're radioactive. Radionucletides in tar are deposited where your bronchial tubes branch, and sit there bombarding your lung tissue with radiation for extended periods of time because tar resists being dissolved in lung fluid.

But the reason those radionucletides are there in the first place is the phosphate fertilizer they use to grow cigarettes. Nitrosamine is there because tobacco is still mostly flue-cured which coats the tobacco with hot smoke which reacts with nicotine to form a class of carcinogenic compounds called nitrosamine. Nitrosamine used to form on flue cured barley too, but the beer producers figured this out in the '80s, and switched to indirect fire.

The cigarette companies never did this. I guess because cigarettes have some unpreventable carcinogens, they figure they've been given carte blanche to go ahead and allow whatever carcinogens into cigarettes that they want, as long as it saves them money.

The government should really step in and fix this.

Note that I recently wrote a letter to both of my senators urging them to allow the EPA to regulate radionucletides in cigarettes (after writing the EPA to confirm that they aren't allowed to regulate radionucletides in cigarettes)

I don't expect this to be successful. Several people have been very passionate about this in the past (including former Boulderite Ed Martell, a PhD radiochemist who worked for the National Center for Atmospheric Research) and have consisently been shut down by the tobacco lobby.

When the government has actually done a good job of regulating carcinogens which enter cigarettes through the manufacturing process, then I wouldn't oppose banning cigarette smoking. As things stand, the government has basically issued a rousing FUCK YOU to cigarette smokers.

[TheCotMan]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

The government should really step in and fix this.

The rest seem fair enough, but this line is definitely political. Discussing what a government should or should not do, that is.

[lil_freak]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Get used to it.. many/most public places are getting rid of it. In RI and MA ALL public places ban smoking indoors.. even strip clubs. Personally, I like it. I want to come home smelling like strippers, not smoke...

Colorado just put into effect a no smoking ban as well, the only exception/exemption from this new law is casinos and smoking establishments like cigar bars and such. I have to agree with you Che. (I had more added to this but after reading it back to myself it just didn't sound right, at all.)

[spahkle]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

I have to say, though I don't like the idea of government carte blanche passing rules that tell a business what customers they can cater to, I do appreciate being able to go play pool (since all the tables here are in bars) and not have to worry about my clothes smelling like smoke when I get home.

[Chris]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Fuck Marriott
Fuck non-smoking whiners
Fuck everyone except the government (keeping it free of politics for you Cot)
Fuck non-smoking bars
Fuck non smoking restaurants
Fuck states that have smoking bans
Fuck smoking bans

Fuck people that want to change the way I live because they don't like the way my living makes them uncormforatble.

I hate the smell of melted cheese. But stinky ass bitches can bring their stinky ass melted cheese bullshit on planes. Fuck them and their stinky food.

I hate the smell of coffee. Why do I have to smell that nasty shit at work everyday?

Cologne and perfume generally make me naeseus but mother fucking Marriott hasn't stopped that smug bitch behind the counter from wearing it.

Fuck prissy little whining motherfuckers that can only see the inconveniece they deal with instead of sucking it up like a big kid and facing facts that pretty much everyone does something that irritates someone else and dealing with it.

Whining little non smoking pukes. Fuck you.

[Chris]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Oh...and fuck the first, second and fucking last person that replies with "tell us how you really feel"

[TheCotMan]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Oh...and fuck the first, second and fucking last person that replies with "tell us how you really feel"

Uh-oh. Someone has woken up Chris.

Wohoo! Chris is back!

[astcell]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Uh-oh. Someone has woken up Chris.

Wohoo! Chris is back!

He's just practicing for Defcon. :>

[skroo]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Uh-oh. Someone has woken up Chris.

And he's unusually cheery for this time of the morning, too.

[theprez98]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Oh...and fuck the first, second and fucking last person that replies with "tell us how you really feel"

Don't forget Apple...

[astcell]

Re: US Marriott hotel chain bans smoking

Mac owners are exempt from the smoking bans. :>