"TUESDAY, May 28 (HealthScoutNews) -- Delaware waiters soon won't have to ask, "Smoking or non-smoking?"<BR><BR>In six months, the entire state will be non-smoking. The little state's big step will give it the nation's toughest ban on indoor smoking, one that would end smoking in all public areas -- including bars, restaurants and casinos."<BR><BR>Man, can you imagine what a great vacation destination Europe would be with a policy like this.<BR><BR><BR><BR>

Glad you like living in a police state.<BR><BR>"Europe bans handguns" Man, can you imagine what a great vacation destination America would be with a policy like this.<BR>

XXX<BR><BR>Touche!!!

Touche? Not really. Very few Europeans will <BR>have a problem with handguns coming to the US. But every American who goes into a European restauraant will walk out stinking like an ashtray.<BR>

I think it is an American weakness that we have to ban smoke. The Europeans do not contract lung cancer like we do.<BR>The mortality and morbidity tables in France, for example, show very few deaths from lung cancer or cardio vascular disease. The rugged Gallic types are stout hearted folks whose gene pool has evolved a resistant sub species. (That must be the case because so many of them smoke and so many of them are still around that nothing much could be killing them off.)<BR><BR>Hmm. Seems to me that the murder rate in France, Germany, England, and all of Scandanavia is much lower than in the USA, and that acquiring a hand gun is difficult. Try getting one in Germany!!<BR><BR>Are you trying to say that European tourists to Miami need to arm themselves??<BR>

No, I'm trying to say that Europe does not exist to be a vacation destination for Americans, any more than America exists to be a vacation destination for Europeans. Both ARE great places to live in their own right, and you can't write off a whole continent (in the case of Europe) on the basis of one aspect.

Delaware can delete my tourist dollars from their revenue. Europe's approach is so much more pleasant -- and I've never ever come from a Vegas casino or European restaurant smelling smoke on my clothing. Too bad you smoke police didn't concern yourself more with who the INS was letting into the USA -- 9/11 wouldn't have happened then.

I don´t smoke (never have), but I am quite used to smoking people. I think smoking after dinner is just a way to finish an enjoyable moment. Aren´t the people of Delaware protesting, that really sounds like a police state. Where is freedom to decide for yourself?

Since 77 percent of adults in Delaware are non-smokers, I think they did just decide for themselves. Decided they didn't want to smell like ashtrays when leaving restaurants.

what do y'all do ..go around smelling yourslf and other people? I have more important things to worry about than how you smell..so smoke if you want &lt; I can live with it.

So, about 200,000 people in Delaware state have just had another freedom eroded.

And you can also die because of it.<BR>I just ate a nice dinner in Delaware.<BR>The place was full, and no one seemed to be in the agony of smoke deprivation.<BR>Most people who smoke can't smell much anyhow!!<BR>

Anyone who says y'all is trash and shouldn't be allowed to post here.<BR><BR>

Americans are like 13-year-olds with an overarching "you're not the boss of me" mentality, which they focus on being able to harm themselves and others with impugnity because that seems to mean freedom to them.<BR><BR>Guns, drugs, smoking, alcohol, obscene profits, polluting vehicles -- all their apparent birthright. But not health care and education -- those are luxuries. As I said -- they're all 13 years old. You'd think they never thought about the downsides of anarchy. <BR><BR>They also refuse to pay for the few things they admit maybe government should provide, like defense and roads for their cars. <BR><BR>To them, freedom means freedom FROM government, no matter what the social cost. For many Europeans it's freedom THANKS to government. <BR><BR>Not that we get it right, either. Smoking's a big problem in some countries and alcohol in some others.<BR><BR>As to cancer rates, statistics are <BR>really very crude ways to figure out what we are doing to ourselves, since we are learning that getting cancer often relates to the interaction of two or more influences, like air pollution AND smoking, or drinking AND smoking.<BR><BR>Delaware? What took you so long? Plenty of other places have already figured out that people eat more when they can smell the food more than the smoke.

There ought to be a law.... isn't that where all this started?

I don't smoke and don't plan to start anytme soon, but somehow this legislating smoking bans gives me the creeps! And the people who get all excited and righteous about it make me want to puke...Just the kind of people who travel to Europe (sniffing themselves and each other!!!) and give Americans a bad name. (Yes, especially the French do think we are a bunch of barbarians and I'm beginning to think they are right.)

Taking a big old leaf, drying it, rolling it, putting it in your mouth and setting it on fire so you can suck in the smoke, just for the buzz -- this is not barbaric?<BR><BR>By your lights, the smell of the men's room in Penn Station after a long, rainy weekend would be the height of sophistication.<BR>

According the the Center for Disease Control, Europeans are more likely to die from cancer and Americans are more likely to die from heart disease, although France has a significantly higher rate of death due to cardiovascular disease than the US.<BR><BR>See for yourself http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/who/whofirst.htm

I don't smoke but you Anti Smoking Nazis make me ill!<BR><BR>US<BR>

I don't smoke, but I can't say that I think that Delaware is implementing a good idea.<BR><BR>First, I like having a choice of areas, especially if there are any smokers in my party. Second, when smoking areas are provided, there's no excuse for smokers to light up in the nonsmoking areas, and no excuse for nonsmokers to complain in the smoking areas. With two areas, everyone is being accomodated to the best extent possible, and that is the way it should be. But, the good citizens of Delaware must vote and decide this issue for themselves.