What do you think of the smoking ban?
Without a doubt, it is a highly controversial issue, not about the proven health hazards of smoking but as to when, where, and over whom should the ban be exerted. I have always believed that all these issues could be and should be resolved through rational analysis and continuous public discussion. However, the disputes will never go away with bias as shown by Kevin Sinclair in his article on May 9.
It seems that in Sinclair's eyes, smoking or not smoking is not much about a free choice that deserves due respect, but is simply a matter of vileness or virtue. Otherwise he wouldn't have called smokers 'doomed old tobacco-gasping dinosaurs'. And anyone who is not his friend in the 'crusade against the pernicious weed' is his enemy, to be vilified, like me.
Very likely it is that outlook that has biased Sinclair, so that he sees things only in the way he feels comfortable with. Thanks to that, he can easily conclude that, based on some recent polling results about the general public's eating out habits and some individuals' remarks, the catering industry has emerged unscathed from the smoking ban and restaurants are actually 'seeing more profits'.
I would be so glad if Sinclair's report was the whole picture. However, my connections in the catering industry tell me quite a different picture. The survey of the catering industry conducted in February by the Smoking Ban Regulations Concern Group already has indicated that half of the respondents have registered the adverse effects the smoking ban has had on their business, and that their customers have dwindled [between] 10 and 80 per cent. I would keep a close watch on the situation.
What I am doing, fundamentally, is to make sure that those running a business will not get into trouble because of the smoking ban, to make sure that any individual who chooses to stay a smoker will not be cornered and prejudiced and to make sure that our attitude and policy towards smoking does not get out of touch with people's real lives. I really see no reason why Sinclair keeps calling me names just because of that.
